A man has been arrested after he allegedly sexually assaulted an unconscious woman in downtown San Francisco on Wednesday evening, but fled when witnesses stopped to help the victim, police said.
Officers initially responded around 6:30 p.m. to the 900 block of Market Street, at Fifth Street, for a report of a sexual assault.
There, they found an unconscious 60-year-old woman.
According to witnesses, passengers on a bus that was passing by yelled for the suspect to stop the assault and when they got off the bus to come to the woman’s aid, the suspect took off running, according to police.
The victim was taken to a hospital for her injuries, police said.
Investigators were able to obtain surveillance images of the suspect and disseminate it to officers.
Early Thursday morning, an officer on patrol near Golden Gate and Hyde streets spotted a man matching the suspect’s description and was able to detain him. After positively identifying him as the suspect, police arrested 41-year-old Fidel Padilla of San Francisco on suspicion of rape.
Although Padilla has been arrested, police are asking anyone with more information to call SFPD’s anonymous tipline at (415) 575-4444 or to text a tip to TIP411 with “SFPD” at the start of the message.
