After two recent sexual assaults on campus, local officials reminded students and Madison residents Tuesday to take precautions both day and night.
On Monday, a female University of Wisconsin student was the victim of sexual assault on the 100 block of East Gorham Street.
According to a report from the Madison Police Department, the UW student was attacked on Gorham Street as she was about to get in her car at around 10 a.m. She reported that a strange man grabbed her on the outside of her clothing, made sexual hip gestures and ran off.
The perpetrator is described as a short, white male between the ages of 19-24. The suspect had blue or green eyes, light brown hair and acne and was dressed in a navy blue hooded sweatshirt, shiny blue nylon shorts and white tennis shoes.
MPD spokesperson Joel DeSpain said it is especially concerning that the stranger approached the woman in broad daylight.
“It’s definitely an odd encounter,” DeSpain said. “People should have the right to be out in the community without a perverted person coming up and grabbing them.”
On Saturday, 21-year-old Daniel Coffee of Madison allegedly grabbed the rear end of a 36-year-old Madison woman on Langdon between Wisconsin Avenue and Carroll Street.
The perpetrator entered the home of the victim and grabbed her buttocks after he allegedly looked at her inappropriately while she was getting her mail.
While the police continue to search for the Gorham Street offender, Coffee has been charged with fourth-degree sexual assault.
Coffee fit the suspect description and was tracked down and arrested not long after MPD was notified.
Nastassja Heintz-Janis, the outreach coordinator for the student organization Prevention Awareness Victim Empowerment, or PAVE, said that somewhere between one-third and one-sixth of women will be sexually assaulted at some point during their lifetimes.
Despite the fact that both of the recent assaults seem to be random, Heintz-Janis said that isn’t the norm.
“Seventy percent of [assaults] happen by someone that the victim already knows,” Heintz-Janis said.
PAVE chair Ally Cruikshank had some advice for students to stay safe.
“There are things that are always encouraged by the police, such as don’t walk by yourself and keep your cell phone handy,” Cruikshank said.
She went on to say that even if students do everything they should, sexual assaults can still happen.
“Each person should do what they have to do to keep themselves safe, but there isn’t a bullet proof plan,” Cruikshank said.
Anyone with information on the Gorham assault should contact Madison Crime Stoppers at 608-266-6014.
