Lake Highlands schools placed on “caution lockdown” while police search for rape suspect

by Robert Wilonsky

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Parents have received automated messages about a burglary suspect on the loose.

Dallas police are investigating a possible third sexual assault in Lake Highlands — this one, just blocks away from two other rapes that have taken place on Ferndale Road in recent days. The latest attack appears to have occurred early this morning, around 7, near Aldwick Drive and Lanshire Drive.

KDFW-Channel 4 is reporting that the man kicked down the door. Sources tell The Dallas Morning News that the woman told Dallas police her attacker entered through a side door, dragged her out of the shower, then tried to put a pillow over her face during the assault. The man was reportedly wearing gloves, and the woman may have scratched her attacker in the face. She escaped and ran to a neighbor’s house, and is now being treated at Parkland.

The suspect is reportedly a Hispanic male, 5-foot-6, with a thin mustache. He may be wearing a gray hoodie.

Police will not confirm that officers are combing the area for the suspect. Paul Stokes, a spokesman for Dallas PD, says via email that “we are preparing the information and will send it out to all early this afternoon.”

Police also will not say whether the search for the suspect has led to 12 nearby Richardson ISD schools being placed on lockdown: Lake Highlands High School, Lake Highlands Junior High School, Lake Highlands Elementary School, Lake Highlands Freshman Center, Northlake Elementary School, Wallace Elementary School, White Rock Elementary School, Merriman Park Elementary School, Skyview Elementary School, Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, Moss Haven Elementary School, and Forest Meadow Junior High School.

Parents have received automated messages about a burglary suspect on the loose, though some have been told it has to do with the search for the rape suspect. Richardson ISD spokesman Tim Clark says district officials haven’t received specific information from Dallas police concerning the increased police activity in the area, but that “it’s pretty obvious why” they’re there. “When we observe elevated police activity” around schools, he says, the schools go into caution lockdown to make sure students are kept safe.

The neighborhood was unnerved by yet another home invasion in an area that wasn’t previously known for violent crime.

Neighbors said half a dozen officers converged on the neighborhood about 9 a.m. Crime scene techs in blue gloves collected evidence while a K-9 unit searched back yards for the suspect.

Christina Rosales and Tanya Eiserer contributed to this report.

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