Serial flasher strikes for 3rd time in West Seattle
SEATTLE -- For the third time in 10 days, a man flashed young girls on a school playground in West Seattle.
"I just wish my husband and I could have seen something so we could have called the police,” neighbor Kathy Lillie said.
From the deck of her home at the corner of 34th Avenue SW and SW Holden Street, Kathy Lillie can see just about everything, but she didn't see what happened half a block from her home Wednesday when a man exposed himself to a 7-year-old girl who was on the Westside School playground.
"He needs to be caught -- it's not right. He doesn't need to be around. We need to get him off the streets quickly,” Lillie said.
Police said the incident happened in the middle of the day. The girl looked through the chain link fence and saw a man sitting in a car with the door open, wearing a red T-shirt and nothing else.
"It's really scary because of all the kids that who walk up and down this street daily,” Lillie said.
The suspect is described as a white man in his 30s or 40s with short dark hair, a normal to slender build and a scruffy beard. He was driving what's described as a beat-up small black car with body damage.
At about the same time Wednesday, there was a similar incident at the Holy Rosary School and on Sept. 9 there was also a report of a flasher.
In the first incident, a man in a white SUV called out to three 9-year-old girls. When they approached him, they saw that he wasn't wearing pants. He has been described as a white man in his 20s with a heavy build.
Although the descriptions of the suspect and the car differ, police believe the same man may be responsible.
"You hope that it doesn't happen in your neighborhood. You always hear about it, but at the same time I guess it tell us that you always have to be vigilant. ou always have to be watching,” parent Patrick Heidal said.