San Diego Police Department are asking for the public’s help in finding a person of interest in a series of assaults on homeless people. NBC 7’s Wendy Fry has more.
San Diego Police Department (SDPD) investigators are looking for the public's help in finding a person of interest in a "senseless," "very violent" series of assaults.
Officers believe the man captured in surveillance footage may be the common denominator for three recent assaults, two of which were fatal.
"As far as motive, right now they just seem like senseless attacks," a police officer said.
The first assault happened at approximately 8 a.m. Sunday morning just off Interstate 5 in Bay Park near Morena Boulevard. The call came in as a fire, police said, but they soon learned the victim was set on fire.
The second happened at approximately 5 a.m. Monday on the 3700 block of Greenwood in San Diego's Midway District, west of Interstate 5 and south of Interstate 8. A man was found attacked and he was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The third incident happened at approximately 6 a.m. Monday morning on the 2500 block of Bacon Street, when officers found a man on the ground, bleeding. The victim suffered severe blunt force trauma and was pronounced dead on the scene.
"These are very, very violent attacks. And again I cannot stress enough how we need to get this person out of the community," the police officer said.
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All victims appear to be transients by themselves, and were likely attacked while they were sleeping.
Police say they believe one person is responsible for the two homicides and attack because of evidence they have collected on the scene.
"We have a person out there attacking victims that were sleeping, doing nothing wrong. And so obviously this is a very dangerous person, a person that we want to remove from the community as fast as we can," the officer said.
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information related to these incidents is encouraged to call the San Diego Police Department’s Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2346 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
No other information was immediately available.
