Police: Intruder strikes again, punches girl, 12

Police believe a male intruder who assaulted a sleeping 10-year-old girl in her Northeast Philadelphia home last month has struck twice again in similar break-ins in the same area.

The latest attack occurred last night around 11, when a man suspect lifted a screen and crawled through the window of a house on the 1100 block of Kerper Street in the Castor section.

When a 12-year-old girl sleeping in a second-floor bedroom with her younger sister awoke to find him standing over her, the man immediately punched her, said Capt. John Darby of the police Special Victims Unit. The girl screamed, waking her mother in a nearby room, and the man punched her several more times before fleeing.

Investigators believe the intruder is the same who assaulted a 10-year-old girl Feb. 28 in her bed on the 1400 block of Levick Street in the adjoining Oxford Circle section. That girl's screams awoke her 74-year-old babysitter, who got into a physical fight with the man and finally bit him before he fled from the house.

A week later, a 22-year-old woman on the 1400 block of Lardner Street awoke in her first-floor living room to find a man masturbating in her dining room. She ran out the front door, and the man ran out of the house.

All three homes are near the Summerdale Avenue corridor.

The suspect is described as a black man in his teens or 20s, 5'8" to 6' tall, with bushy eyebrows. One victim described him as having facial hair, and another said he had some discoloration or acne on his face.

Police are asking people to keep first-floor doors and windows locked and to call 215-685-3265 with any information about the suspect.