Seattle flasher on the loose, police ask for tips

Police are searching for the man who has exposed himself to children three times in 10 days in West Seattle. He’s victimized students at Holy Rosary and Westside School.

He’s been to Holy Rosary twice. The school has stepped up security. Children aren’t allowed to play on the play equipment closest to the road. School is closed on Friday; instead the school has a fall festival “West Fest”. Parents are usually allowed to drop off their children, this year they’re being asked to stay to help keep them safe.

The same flasher is also believed to be targeting kids at West Seattle elementary schools, and on Thursday police asked for the public's help identifying him.

About 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, officers were called to the Westside School in the 7700 block of 34th Avenue Southwest.

"A 7-year-old girl was out on the playground for her afternoon recess," Detective Jeff Kappel said in a Thursday afternoon statement. "The playground is well elevated above the street level. The girl was at the east fence south of the intersection of 32nd Avenue Southwest and Southwest Holden Street. The girl looked down and saw the suspect sitting in his car, which was parked on the west side of 32nd Avenue Southwest facing northbound. The suspect was wearing a red T-shirt but no pants."

The girl did not report the incident to school staff, but told her father at home and he called police. The flasher is described as a white male in his 30s or 40s with short dark hair, normal to slender build and a scruffy-looking beard who was sitting in a beat-up small black car with body damage.

That man is suspected to be the same one seen lurking around West Seattle's Holy Rosary School staring at young girls while he was in his car naked from the waist down.

On Wednesday, parents received an alert from Holy Rosary School that the strange man had been there at lunch time. Seattle police said the man was in his car, loitering by the playground.

Three 14-year-old girls saw him, and thought he was trying to get pictures or video of them with his phone, so they moved away.

He followed them, driving his car closer. Police said from there, the girls could see his car door was open, and the lower half of him was naked. They ran to a recess monitor. The man sped away.

"These are children; leave the poor children alone," parent Fred Zimmer told KIRO 7.

He was frustrated and shaken as he picked up his two young daughters. Zimmer made the same trip several days ago, when he got a horrifying call about a similar scare.

"My little daughter was a witness to that incident," he said as his daughter stood half-hiding behind him.

Zimmer was referring to Sept. 9. At about 1:15 p.m., police said three younger girls, all 9 years old, were sitting on the edge of the playground when they noticed a man in a large, white SUV next to the playground.

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