BRUNSWICK, Maine — Nearly a month after a similar incident near the Bowdoin College campus and five weeks after a Bowdoin student reported she was sexually assaulted in off-campus housing, a 19-year-old Bowdoin student reported she was grabbed from behind early Sunday morning while walking home alone on Longfellow Street.
Brunswick police were called to the woman’s off-campus apartment at 2:17 a.m. Sunday after the woman told police a man in his late 20s or early 30s approached her and grabbed her at about 1:40 a.m., Brunswick police Cmdr. Marc Hagan said Monday.
“She turned and saw that it was someone she didn’t know, elbowed him and ran to the Brunswick Apartments,” Hagan said. “We were called at 2:17 a.m.”
The woman said the man did not chase her. Hagan said she was not injured.
She was given a ride from Brunswick Apartments on Maine Street to her home, and her roommate called police and Bowdoin Security.
The man is described as thin, approximately 6 feet tall, with a tattoo on his left arm. He was wearing a black hoodie-type sweatshirt and sagging jeans, Hagan said.
The incident follows two others that have students “absolutely worried and nervous and afraid and very, very, very concerned,” Bowdoin Student Government Vice President Michelle Kruk said Nov. 19.
On Nov. 11, a Bowdoin student was taken to Mid Coast Hospital after reporting that an unknown man entered her apartment in the Mayflower Apartments housing complex on Belmont Street and sexually assaulted her. The woman told police the stranger entered her apartment through an unlocked exterior door.
A week later, a 20-year-old student said she had been grabbed from behind while walking along Potter Street at about 8 p.m. The woman told police she screamed and ran from the assailant, but when she looked back she couldn’t see anyone. Police searched the area with a tracking dog but didn’t find anything.
Following the first incident, police released a sketch of a man allegedly seen loitering in the area of the Mayflower Apartments. He was described as in his late 20s, slender and between 5 feet 10 inches and 6 feet tall.
Campus security subsequently adjusted lighting and inspected locks, then met with town officials “to look into ways to promote safety on campus and in town,” college spokesman Doug Cook said at the time.
Following a request from Bowdoin officials, First Parish Church, which borders the campus, evicted a support group for sex offenders that had been meeting at the nearby facility on Tuesday nights.
Brunswick police then named as a person of interest a convicted sex offender from Bath who was arrested Nov. 25 after allegedly breaking into a Bath home and exposing himself to a woman who lived there. After that incident, Brunswick detectives went to Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset in an attempt to question Stephen McIntire, 55, about the Bowdoin incidents, but police said McIntire declined to cooperate.
McIntire was previously convicted of gross sexual assault, burglary, violation of privacy and of violating “Peeping Tom” laws after police said video cameras caught him “peeping” in windows on the Hyde School campus in Bath.
McIntire remained in Two Bridges Regional Jail on Monday.
Hagan said Monday that the initial two incidents at Bowdoin College remain under investigation, but police have no new information.
At 11:17 a.m. Sunday, Bowdoin Director of Security and Safety Randy Nichols sent a “campus security alert” to all students and employees reporting the Sunday incident. He encouraged students to walk in pairs when possible, walk in well-lit areas after dark, ensure doors and windows are locked and not propped open, avoid listening to music or talking on cellphones while walking and use the Bowdoin shuttle and Brunswick Taxi, which is subsidized through Bowdoin Student Government.
On Monday, Hagan said police did not call a tracking dog to assist with Sunday morning’s search because so much time had passed between the alleged incident and the time officers were called. He again urged anyone who is accosted to contact Brunswick police immediately by calling 911.
The college’s student affairs staff was scheduled to meet with students at 7 p.m. Sunday to provide support after the latest incident.