Police search for girl's attacker

She escapes the man who grabbed her on the walk home from a Saturday school program.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published October 1, 2007

SULPHUR SPRINGS - Tampa police are searching for a man who attacked an 8-year-old girl on her way home from school Saturday morning.

Jamie Bullock told police she was walking home from Sulphur Springs Elementary School about 11 a.m. when she passed a man rifling through the trash.

In her hands she held pink and red Starburst candy. The man grabbed her ponytail and would not let go.

She kicked him in the knee and ran home - about 50 feet away. The man ran in the other direction, Jamie told police, and said he would be back.

At home, her dad called 911.

Jamie's mom, Serina Evans, 27, said she thought the neighborhood was safe and regularly let her daughter walk the mile home from school.

"I would never expect anything like this to happen here," she said.

From now on, Evans said, she will walk back from the Saturday academy with her daughter.

Police told Jamie to remember to scream if anyone attacked her again, Evans said.

Jamie described her attacker as a white man, 5 foot 7 or 5 foot 8, with white hair and white facial hair. He was 60 or 70 years old, she said, with a mark next to his ear.

Police stepped up surveillance in the area, near the intersection of N Brooks and E Seward streets. No arrest had been made Sunday, Sgt. Becky Bodamer said.

"I think he must have wanted the candy," Jamie said Sunday. "But my mom said he should have asked for it."

Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 813 661-2454.

[Last modified September 30, 2007, 23:52:33]