Police vow to solve attacks on women in Somerville

By Globe Staff

October 24, 2011

1 minute to read

Local and university police in Cambridge and Somerville are joining with MBTA Transit Police in the search for the suspect — or suspects — responsible for a wave of sexual assaults of women that began in September.

A police sketch of the suspect in the most recent attack

Police from Harvard and Tufts universities met with local and transit police today to compare investigative notes on the attacks, which occurred in Somerville near the Cambridge line, and to identify possible suspects, said Somerville Deputy Police Chief Paul Upton.

Upton said there were similarities between the attacks, but the detectives are not ready to say all five assaults were committed by the same person. He said that each attack also had differences, suggesting there might be more than one attacker.

Upton said that police, who will be working in a “task-force like setting,’’ are determined to put an end to the attacks.

“We are not going to sit back and let one or two people destroy a sense of security the residents have there,’’ said Upton. “If this guy, or guys, are out there, we will find them and we well get them.’’

In four of the five assaults, he said, the suspect wore a dark hooded sweatshirt and was described by the victims as a dark-complexioned white male. He also said the five attacks took place between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m.

The most recent attack took place lThursday around 11:30 p.m. when a woman walking away from the Porter Square MBTA station was grabbed from behind, pushed into a car, and sexually assaulted.