A 24-year-old Berkeley man has been charged with misdemeanor sexual battery in connection with a series of five attacks on women in a two-week period, police said.
Charges were filed against William Sanchez-Gomez on Wednesday but he's no longer in custody, according to authorities.
Berkeley police said that in each of the five reported cases Sanchez-Gomez approached women in their 20s or 30s while he was riding a bicycle and grabbed them by their buttocks.
Police said that shortly before the latest incident, which was in the 2000 block of Blake Street at 5:45 p.m. last Sunday, officers spotted Sanchez-Gomez riding his bike near Sacramento Street and Dwight Way and arrested him.
The first incident took place in the 1900 block of Channing Way, near Martin Luther King Jr. Way, at 9:40 a.m. on July 14.
The second occurred near the intersection of Francisco and Milvia streets at 1:40 p.m. on July 25. The third was in the 1900 block of Hearst Avenue at 1:40 p.m. on July 26 and the fourth occurred four hours later one block away, near the intersection of Hearst Avenue and Grant Street.
Berkeley police said anyone with information about the offenses should call the sex crimes unit at (510) 981-5735.
Local
Sanchez-Gomez is at least the third sexual assault suspect to be arrested in Berkeley in the last ten days.
Last week Jodonnell Powell Jr., 37, was arrested as a suspect in three attacks on women near the University of California at Berkeley campus. Demetrius Johnson, 36, was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault for an attack on a woman in the area of Dwight Way and Hillegass Avenue, near People's Park.
Police said Powell also allegedly approached his victims while he was riding a bicycle and grabbed their buttocks or genitals.
