Philly police: Serial abductor/molester of teen boys strikes again
A serial abductor of teen boys in Philadelphia appears to have returned on Thursday. Police plead for parents to talk to their children.
A man who on several occasions last year abducted teenage boys and sexually assaulted them has struck again — this time on Thursday morning in Southwest Philadelphia, police said Friday evening.
The man, described as a heavyset African American in his 30s with a brown complexion and beard, lured into his car a 12-year-old boy on the 5800 block of Baltimore Avenue who was on his way to school Thursday with an offer to make money pumping his gas at a station across the street.
Instead he drove off with the boy and assaulted him, Police Capt. Mark Burgmann said in a hastily called press conference at Special Victims Unit headquarters at 300 E. Hunting Park Ave.
The boy was later released.
Police were seeking leads in the case, noting that the man drove a burgundy Subaru Outback with tinted windows. There also was a bandana on the steering wheel. The victim described his attacker as 6 feet tall and answering to "Maleek."
The attack is similar to three attacks in November in the northwest part of the city, and a fourth attack in May in Strawberry Mansion. All involved teenage boys and police said there were other similarities.
Those attacks happened: at 5 p.m. Nov. 13 on the 6600 block of Stenton Avenue in East Mount Airy-Stenton area; about 5 p.m. Nov. 16 at Stenton Avenue and Haines Street, East Germantown-West Oak Lane area; and around 9:15 a.m. on Nov. 21 at 66th Avenue and North 20th Street, West Oak Lane. On May 9, he attacked two brothers, ages 14 and 15, after abducting them on the 3300 block of Ridge Avenue in Strawberry Mansion. With Thursday's attack, there are now six victims.
Each of the abductions lasted about 20 minutes, Burgmann said, and he showed the boys pornographic videos on his phone.
Police publicized the November assaults after noticing the pattern. He might have stopped at that time because of the attention, Burgmann said.
"This guy is a predator," Burgmann said. "He is not going to stop. He has made that clear."
The officer pleaded that "you got to talk to your kids."