Search on for Georgia Tech groper

Georgia Tech Police are fairly sure of one thing about the recent assaults on women on campus: It is one man. They just aren't sure whether he is black, white or brown. He has even been described as tan.

Georgia Tech police Chief Teresa Crocker told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday that despite the fact the three women who have been assaulted since midnight Saturday have given different races for their attacker, investigators believe one man is behind the assaults because of similarities in the attacks and vague descriptions of the attacker.

Plus, she said the attacks themselves were unusual, which further suggested that they were the acts of one individual.

"We don't have a lot to go on at this point," Crocker said, noting that the witnesses didn't get good looks at the man. “This isn't anything [like this] that has occurred in the eight years that I've been here, so to think that you've got a lot of people out here doing that is probably not right.”

Women students on campus Wednesday described the attacks -- a man has grabbed and in some cases groped women, who have fought him off -- as unnerving and "creepy." So far, no student has been hurt and the man has run off when his victims fought back or called for help.

But the dozen or so students interviewed by the AJC were split on whether they believed the man constituted a real danger. Some even speculated that since the victims gave different descriptions, that attacks might a depraved fraternity hazing new pledges.

Fatima Diallo, 21, said she and her friends have taken to walking in group at night and calling for rides from the campus van service.

"It is weird walking around, knowing there is a crazy guy walking around," said Diallo, a chemical engineering junior from Guinea. "It is scary."

Bridgette Bell, a fourth-year biology major, said she was taking the normal precautions but she wasn't too worried about the incidents.

"It seems more like a prank," she said. "He doesn't seem to be very aggressive. Just bear-hugging the back of somebody's leg."

Experts in sexual violence, however, warned the man should considered dangerous.

"Any time someone is approached by someone in an aggressive manner, you have to assume he is capable of anything," said Maj. Keith Meadows, who oversees major crimes for the Atlanta police. "You have to understand that predators like that have progressive behavior. They work their way up. Some rapists start out as Peeping Toms and ease themselves into deviant behavior. A Peeping Tom will become a burglar who goes through women underpants."

Charles Heller, a forensic psychologist in New York, said groping was common and attackers claim it sexually stimulated them. What was uncommon about the Tech attacks, he said, was that the attacker was scared off in all three cases.

"There usually is a little more planning involved," he said. “He could still be dangerous and he is still a predator."

In the latest report, a woman told campus police she was walking near Turner Place around 12:50 a.m. Tuesday when a man grabbed her around the waist from behind. She struck the man and ran.

She described the man as a tan-skinned male, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing around 175 pounds. On Saturday, two other women said they were attacked but one victim described the attacker as black and the other said her attacker was white. Both said their attacker approached from behind and fled when they screamed. They gave similar descriptions of height and weight as the other victim.

One, who said she was walking near the Wesley Foundation about 12:15 a.m., said the man unzipped her pants, the most aggressive act in the campus attacks. The other, who said she was walking on Tech Parkway about 8:15 a.m., said grabbed her thigh in a bear hug. She said her attacker ran with a noticeably awkward gait.  She described him as  white and wearing a light brown, camouflage jacket with brown athletic shorts. She estimated his age to be  the  late 20s to middle 30s.