Hank Silverberg, wtop.com
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Police are searching for a man who took a 5-year-old girl from a Fairfax County playground and sexually assaulted her.
The girl was taken from a playground in the Lincolnia area on Sunday, in the 4900 block of Manitoba Drive, according to Fairfax County Police. The victim was apparently taken into the basement of a nearby building and attacked.
Police are hoping someone in the neighborhood saw something. Police Spokesman Bud Walker says someone carrying a 5 year old child may not have been out of the ordinary for that location. But word of the assault may make someone remember.
“Hopefully by learning this was an abduction and attack … people might put two and two together,” Walker says.
The neighborhood is full of two story garden apartments. The apartment complex is tucked off the very busy Little River Turnpike, not to far from I-95 and behind a shopping center.
Residents there are a bit on edge. “I was shocked. I’ve lived here for about ten years, so I was kind of freaked out by it,” says a 15-year-old resident who was jogging near the playground.
She says kids often play in several small playgrounds around the housing complex without parental supervision.
Another woman, who did not want to be identified, says she will be watching the neighborhood kids a bit more carefully now.
“When I grew up, my parents were always outside when I was playing. That’s something we should go back to.”
Detectives have been distributing fliers and talking to neighbors this week, searching for clues.
The suspect is described as a Hispanic man of medium height with an average-to- heavy build. He has black hair and was last seen wearing a white shirt and dark pants.
WTOP’s Mitchell Miller contributed to this report. Follow Mitchell and WTOP on Twitter.
(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
