Covington Police Chief Brian Valenti is asking for help in identifying the main suspect in several instances of alleged harassment and inappropriate touching in Covington’s Mainstrasse and Mutter Gottes neighborhoods.
“Most are aware; some are not,” said Commissioner Shannon Smith at the Covington Commission meeting Tuesday evening. “There’s an individual frequenting the Mainstrasse area and around Mother of God that’s essentially groping women for lack of better words.”
She said she wanted to clear up any “misinformation” that may be going around and requested that Valenti share any progress the police have made in their investigation as well as any advice the public ought to know about the alleged perpetrator.
Valenti said that the information he could share was limited due to the matter being under active investigation, but he did share a timeline of the incidents.
The man in question first came to the department’s attention late in August last year. In early September, the police put video camera footage on their Facebook page of the man they believe to be the suspect.
The video shows a white man with dark hair and a short beard dressed in a white t-shirt, blue track pants, sunglasses and a gray baseball cap jogging down Craig Street in Mainstrasse.
Valenti said that the department had received six reports of groping to date. None of the victims who had spoken with the police were able to identify the man, he said.
“He’s very, very sporadic,” Valenti said. “He disappears for months at a time. It creates kind of an investigative issue for us because it’s not like we can just say, OK, well, there’s this guy in Mainstrasse, and he’s going to be there.”
The most recent incidents occurred on May 24 and June 2.
The May incident occurred in the evening in the 200 block of West 8th St., according to a public information officer with the Covington Police. The victim managed to escape the suspect before he had a chance to touch her.
The June incident happened around 11:30 p.m. near 7th Street and Main Street. This time, the suspect successfully touched the victim before running away, according to Covington Police. The victims in both incidents gave descriptions of the man that were in line with previous reports.
“We might have an idea who this guy is,” Valenti said, but the department lacked any hard proof. The best they had were existing video and photo evidence as well as one reported license plate number, which he did not share at the meeting.
He did say that the department seems to have established a pattern of behavior for the incidents.
“He generally tries to strike up a conversation with somebody in some way shape or form,” Valenti said. “He’s not just walking up to people.”
Smith said that six reported cases, “as a woman in this area, is concerning.”
Valenti said a detective specializing in sexual assault and domestic violence was in the process of investigating the case.
Still, he added that “we need more information. We need a good witness that can identify this person.”
He advised the public to travel in groups if they’re out at night and to contact police immediately if someone attempts to touch them inappropriately or otherwise harass them.
Anyone with any information on the suspect should contact Detective Austin Ross at (859)292-2242.