CHICAGO — Police said they've released the suspect questioned Wednesday about three sexual assaults and at least two home invasions that terrorized neighbors just hours apart on the far South Side.
Police said they believed a man who entered a home and sexually assaulted two women Wednesday morning in Washington Heights was the same attacker who sexually assaulted a teen girl just hours later in the same neighborhood.
They suspect the same man entered another home where he attempted to assault a young girl that same morning.
The crimes happened between 3 a.m. and 6:40 a.m., police said.
A man first sexually assaulted a 43-year-old woman and 22-year-old woman who were sleeping in their home in the 10300 block of South Emerald Avenue. Police said he got into the home through an open kitchen window and fled after the attack.
Police said they believed the same man then moved to the 10100 block of South Green Street, where he entered a home and tried to assault a 11-year-old girl but was scared off.
Shortly after, he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl on her way to school, police said. The teen was walking to the bus stop in the 10000 block of South Peoria Street when the man came out from an alley, grabbed her from behind and put a knife to her throat, police said.
He then took her to a nearby yard and assaulted her before taking off, according to police.
Police said Wednesday evening that they had a suspect in custody but later released him.
The suspect in the attacks is described as a thin, 6-foot-1-inch, black man between 16 and 22 years old, weighing 150-170 pounds. He had black medium-length dreadlocks and was last seen wearing a black T-shirt, baggy low-hanging blue jeans with a long white or tan belt that had a rectangular belt buckle, and white gym shoes, according to police.
Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at 312-747-8271.
