WILLIAMSBURG — Police arrested a man in connection to at least two incidents of groping women in Williamsburg after another woman was groped Thursday morning, officials and sources said.
Police received reports of at least two incidents where a man groped women in recent weeks in the same area that they believed to be related.
They arrested a suspect after another woman was groped on Thursday morning around 9 a.m. in the same area, near Humboldt Street and Metropolitan Avenue, sources said.
The victim initially dismissed it as a "New York experience," but when she later spotted the man in the same intersection, she called police to report the crime, sources said.
Police arrived shortly after and arrested the man, who is being questioned at the 94th Precinct for the two other incidents. The first occurred on May 20 on Jackson Street near Humboldt Street and the other on May 22 on Skillman Avenue near Humboldt Street.
Victims and their friends told DNAinfo New York Wednesday that a number of Williamsburg women — who did not file police reports — had been groped near the Graham Avenue L train stop.
Councilman Antonio Reynoso staffer Jennifer Gutierrez, who's been speaking with 94th Precinct Capt. James Ryan, said more women have been coming forward with official complaints since DNAinfo reported that nearly a dozen women were groped in recent weeks.
One victim, Andrea Larsen, 36, said police told her Thursday that she may be asked to look at a lineup to identify the man who groped her twice in the last week.
It was unclear whether the man arrested was responsible for the other groping incidents that local women didn't report to police.
The women realized that the incidents — in which a man grabbed their buttockss as he walked by — sounded similar after a resident warned her neighbors through a popular parenting group.
Several women said they were groped as they walked near their homes early in the morning, between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.
Victims said most of the incidents happened south of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, north of Metropolitan Avenue and west of Kingsland Avenue.
"The investigation is still going on," Gutierrez said. "Encourage anyone else to come forward. I’m hopeful."
