Serial scooter groper in Chicago arrested, charged

Chicago police have arrested a man they say is the person who came to be known in Chicago as the “scooter groper,” allegedly riding around on a “motorized scooter groping women,” authorities said.

Victor Manuel-Reyes, 36, of the 1300 block of West 19th Street, was arrested Friday morning in the 500 block of East Illinois Street, according to an email from Chicago police. Manuel-Reyes has since been charged on suspicion of criminal sexual assault by force, four counts of aggravated battery in a public place and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse causing bodily harm.

He was expected to appear before a judge in bond court Sunday to answer to seven felony counts, according to police.

Authorities contend Manuel-Reyes was the man who attacked at least two women, more than two months apart. Officials initially said the man, of whom surveillance images were circulated as part of a police alert sent Aug. 6, had been riding an electric skateboard —later changing the wording and saying it was a “one wheel electric scooter.”

In the first attack, around 10:15 a.m. June 1 in the 400 block of West Lake Street, a man wearing a white bicycle helmet and riding an electric skateboard came up from behind a woman, bumped into her and “touched the victim’s buttocks and her genitalia,” according to the police alert.

More than two months later, on Aug. 6, also at 10:15 a.m. but this time in the 1100 block of South State Street, a man wearing a white bicycle helmet again approached a woman and similarly groped her without consent before riding off on the electric skateboard or scooter.

Police did not provide details regarding the investigation, but after the surveillance images were widely distributed in local media, at least one Chicagoans reported confronting the man. That man even posted a video following a man he believed to be the man from the images and said the man ducked into a restaurant. It wasn’t clear whether any of that information assisted police in locating a person of interest in the case.

Manuel-Reyes is expected to appear before a judge Sunday. Check back for updates.