BEVERLY — Local women are on edge after learning a woman reported being sexually assaulted Sunday night by a man wielding a gun on Bridge Street.
Police released little information about the assault in the wooded area adjacent to the Hall-Whittaker Bridge at 10:30 p.m. The area is a shortcut popular among students of the Ayers Ryal Side Elementary School.
Police said the woman was walking alone on Bridge Street when she was taken at gunpoint into the woods.
Radio transmissions detailed how police were instructed to turn on their blue lights on their cruisers when they arrived on Bridge Street so the victim would know it was OK to leave the woods.
The woman, whom police did not identify, was taken to Beverly Hospital.
Police issued a press release last night describing the culprit as a black man in his 20s, wearing a dark blue T-shirt and shorts of an unknown color. His gun was described as a small, black handgun.
Patrolman John McCarthy, department spokesman, would not say if the culprit knew the victim or if he was a complete stranger.
"That's an aspect of the investigation," he said.
In the wake of the sexual assault, McCarthy said police are increasing their patrols in the Bridge Street area.
"We're doing a lot of positive things at this time," McCarthy said.
Following the assault, Beverly patrolmen and Danvers Patrolman Kevin Wood and his tracking dog, Hogan, searched the area for the suspect but did not locate him.
Police did recover physical evidence from the crime scene, but McCarthy would not say what that evidence was.
News of the assault worried many Ryal Side residents, especially since the scene of the assault is a trail that many school-age children use as a shortcut to Ayers Ryal Side Elementary School on Woodland Avenue.
Lisa Tremblay, whose house abuts the wooded area, knows all too well the foot traffic that uses that path.
"(My dog) barks at all the kids that go up there," Tremblay said.
Tremblay said she didn't hear anything Sunday night.
"If I had heard somebody crying or yelling, I'd be the first person to call 911," she added.
She said her dog didn't bark, either, until police arrived.
Debbie Perkins, a lifelong Ryal Side resident, is taking extra precautions now.
She took her dog, Chloe, out for a walk earlier in the daylight yesterday after reading about the assault in The Salem News yesterday.
She said she usually goes for her walks between 8 and 10 p.m.
"I'll be a little apprehensive about doing it now," Perkins said. Perkins and Tremblay said that part of the road is poorly lighted.
Tremblay tells her daughter to walk across the street where there is a street light and then cross the street to her home.
"If this guy's hiding on this side of the street, he can scoop them right off the sidewalk," she added.
Help the police
Anyone with information can call police at 978-922-1212 or leave an anonymous tip at 978-921-6047. Detective Jeffrey Liacos and Patrolwoman Darlene Prinz are investigating the assault.
