Disturbing attack on 7-year-old has neighbors scared, angry

There’s fear in the 1400 block of North Smith Court.

And outrage.

An intruder – police referred to him as an unknown suspect – went into an apartment on the block and sexually assaulted a 7-year-old girl on Sunday, injuring her seriously enough that she remained in a hospital Tuesday afternoon, Wichita police Sgt. Nikki Woodrow said. Woodrow didn’t know the girl’s condition.

Wichita police are asking for the public’s help to find the attacker. Woodrow said she could give only a vague suspect description: white male, clean-shaven, light-colored hair and wearing jeans and an unknown type of shirt.

At midmorning Tuesday, nearly 60 hours after the attack occurred at 2:40 a.m. Sunday, several police cars sat on the block where it happened. At noon, a marked unit was parked around the corner on 13th Street with an officer behind the wheel.

“It just doesn’t feel like home anymore. You know, it feels like a crime scene,” one neighbor said. “I’m kind of terrified, actually. ... It’s horrible. It’s not like something that happens here – but it did.”

She’s taking safety measures but wouldn’t elaborate. For security reasons, she asked not to be named.

The police department is funneling a “considerable amount of resources” into finding the man who assaulted the 7-year-old, Woodrow said.

The apartment is within a cluster of six two-story apartment buildings near 13th and Zoo Boulevard that back up to I-235. Smith Court dead ends at the apartments.

The attack occurred in a second-floor apartment, according to a neighbor who asked not to be identified for safety reasons. She said her next-door neighbor on the second floor knocked on her door early Sunday and said she needed to use her phone to call 911.

“Right now, we’re asking anyone who may have observed anyone loitering or behaving suspiciously in that area over the past couple days ... or has direct information on this crime” to call the Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit at 316-660-9494, Wichita-Sedgwick County Crime Stoppers at 316-267-2111 or leave a tip at 800-222-TIPS (8477), Woodrow said.

Also, Crime Stoppers can be reached at www.wichitasedgwickcountycrimestoppers.com or on the P3 Tips mobile application. Those tips are anonymous and can lead to a cash reward.

Wichita police weren’t saying much about the crime – including how the attacker got into the apartment. The man, they say, sexually assaulted the girl and left. An adult in the apartment woke up to the girl’s cries and called 911.

Investigators “have been working round the clock since the call came out,” Woodrow said.

Eric Schueler, one of the apartment residents who owns his unit, said another owner told him he will need to replace some of his ground-level fence boards because police took them as evidence.

There were gaps where fence boards were missing Tuesday.

The ground-level units have privacy fences around small back patios. Directly above the fenced patios are second-floor balconies, also surrounded by privacy fencing. Farther out from the buildings, another privacy fence partly screens the apartments from I-235 traffic. Tall cottonwoods shade the west side of the apartments

Another apartment resident said she has lived at the apartments for 30 years. “I don’t recall anything of this nature, so it’s very disturbing,” she said, asking not to be identified.

Police who came to her door “didn’t say anything” about the crime and asked whether she saw or heard anything, she said. She didn’t.

Crime scene investigators remained at the apartments Monday night, she said. A neighbor told her police put a ladder up on an apartment building.

Down the street just past the apartments, Raeanda Martel was tending to her lawn Tuesday as the police cars drove off.

She felt a sense of outrage. “Big time,” she said.

“There is no place on Earth for somebody like that. I hope they get him. He won’t get enough justice – I guarantee that.”

This story was originally published June 13, 2017 at 4:57 PM with the headline "Disturbing attack on 7-year-old has neighbors scared, angry."