On Monday, Campus Security and Emergency Services reported in an alert that they’re looking for a suspicious male.
The man allegedly approached two female students on two different instances and acted inappropriately by touching them without their consent. He hugged one of the women and placed his arm around the other.
An updated alert issued on Oct. 9 stated that the man has been identified and spoken with Campus Security. He is not considered a threat to the community.
While neither of these women filed reports with the Kingston Police Force (KPF), Const. Steve Koopman, media relations officer for KPF, said they’re in contact with Campus Security about both cases.
Koopman said it’s important to file police reports with KPF in the event of a similar occurrence.
“Even when someone may feel that it’s not ‘police worthy’ or may be minor, or that they may not want to proceed formally in terms of ‘I don’t want a person charged with it’, we still would recommend they give us a call or contact us and file a report,” he said.
“Right now we’re not looking at egregious sexual assaults or extreme violence against these women, but they can still potentially constitute sexual assault or criminal harassment. We would want to make sure that that doesn’t occur and doesn’t increase in its nature.”
Koopman said one of the incidents occurred at the end of September, while the other occurred in the evening of Oct. 4, close to University Ave. and Union St. In the second occurrence, the suspicious person followed the woman for a period of time.
“If it is the same individual and he has the wherewithal to approach strange females or females that he’s not associated to, and strike up conversations that become inappropriate in nature, and the fact that he continues to follow them some distance as they’re walking understandably causes concern,” Koopman said.
In one of the incidents of inappropriate touching, the man was reportedly carrying a guitar and playing music.
According to the alert put out by Campus Security, the man may be of East Indian descent, is in his early 20s, has dark hair, a slim to medium build, wears thick-framed rectangular glasses and is approximately 5’8”.
This article was last updated at 4:56 p.m. on October 9.
The alert asks that anyone who has been engaged inappropriately by this person contact the Emergency Report Centre at 613-533-6111 or KPF at 613-549-4660.
Tags
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.