Woman attacked while jogging in Montgomery County: police
MONTGOMERY TWP., Pa. - Authorities in Montgomery County are searching for a suspect after a woman was attacked while jogging Tuesday night.
The attack happened just after 5 p.m. near the area of Longleat Drive and Westgate Drive in Montgomery Township.
Investigators say the woman was approached from behind by the attacker who grabbed her arm and struck her in the face.
"When she turned round they got into a scuffle back and forth where she was hit in the face a few times," said Lieutenant William Peoples, Montgomery Township Police Department.
The woman managed to fight off the attacker, who fled and was last seen running towards Upper State Road.
Police believe the suspect is a thin 6-foot white man in his 20s. They say he had a black hooded sweatshirt pulled closely around his face during the attack.
Authorities searched the area with K9 units immediately after the assault, but they were unable to find the suspect.
Fox 29’s Ali Reid spoke to folks who have lived in that neighborhood for 20-something years, and they say they've never seen or heard of an incident happening quite like this.
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Residents are clearly shocked, and they want answers, as do police who were out searching for this suspect for hours Tuesday and were back at it again Wednesday morning.
Bryan Shea lives directly across from where police say the situation occurred. He has two daughters himself and couldn't imagine it happening to them..
"This doesn't happen in this neighborhood. It doesn't happen in Montgomeryville for matter of fact," said Shea.
On Wednesday evening, people continued to take in the beautiful weather. Chunmei Li went for a walk with her baby.
"I was a little hesitant going out today but I believe that there's a lot of people coming home from work, so we should be safe right now," said Li.
Law enforcement are reminding people to always be on high alert- but are applauding the woman for fighting back.
"I would always say in a situation like that you wanna fight back, make as much noise as possible and bring attention to yourself. That's gonna be the best thing," said Lieutenant Peoples.
At this point, police do not have any videos or images of the suspect or the assault.
They're calling this an isolated incident and are working with surrounding departments.
They say the victim has slight injuries to her eye, but is doing OK.
Anyone with information on the attack is asked to contact local police.