Police on Thursday were investigating the attempted sexual assault of a housekeeper in Granada Hills.
The victim was attacked about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday at a residence in the 16800 block of San Jose Street, Los Angeles police Officer Drake Madison said.
She told officers she had been sexually assaulted and fought off her male assailant, police said.
The suspect knocked on the victim’s door and asked to speak with her about recent break-ins in the area, then forced his way inside, where he attempted to sexually assault the woman before fleeing, Madison said.
The suspect was described as 25 to 30 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, about 250 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.
A man matching that description had approached another woman a short time earlier on nearby Minnehaha Street and asked to use her phone.
The woman became suspicious and called 911 to report the encounter, Madison said.
LAPD Capt. William Hayes, who heads the department’s Robbery-Homicide Division, told reporters at an afternoon news conference that the suspect may have specifically targeted both women with the intent of sexually assaulting them.
“They’re both middle-aged to elderly women,” he said.
Alice Gratias, who has lived at her home for 51 years, said her housekeeper was alone when a man knocked on the front door and told her he was a neighbor named Kevin, then forced his way inside.
“He grabbed her, knocked her down, trying to get her over to the sofa, and then he got her cornered on the wall here and was trying to kiss her, did kiss her,” Gratias said.
“And then, when she was knocked down, she happened to just kick him really hard in his groin … and then he ran away.”
Gratias said the woman, who is in her 60s, was shaken up but otherwise OK.
“She was a fighter,” the homeowner said. “She had extra strength at that time.”
— City News Service