Police are investigating whether 26-year old Adolfo Martinez could be linked to past attacks in the area.
Police have arrested a man in connection with a sexual assault in Brooklyn Monday night that occurred amid a string of attacks in the area, and sources tell NBC New York that police are eyeing him as a suspect in other incidents.
Adolfo Martinez, 26, was charged with forcible touching and third-degree sexual abuse for allegedly groping an 18-year-old woman just before 8 p.m. Monday in Sunset Park, police said.
Sources told NBC New York that investigators are looking at his possible connections to some of those assaults.
Martinez is a family man, according to neighbors, with a wife and an 8-month-old child.
Those who live in the area told NBC New York they were surprised to discover the husband and father of an infant baby could attack an 18-year-old girl.
Despite the disbelief, police said it wasn't Martinez's first incident. According to an official familiar with the case, Martinez also has a previous arrest for groping a woman in Chinatown in 2007.
He was accused of squeezing the buttocks of a woman near a subway stop at Chrystie and Grand streets at about 6 p.m. The outcome of that case is not known.
Detectives at the Special Victims Unit are now interviewing other women from past attacks to see if he could be part of the larger pattern.
Authorities initially said Tuesday they did not believe the groping assault on Monday was part of the pattern of sexual attacks they have been investigating since March. Women in Park Slope, Sunset Park and the fringes of those areas have been assaulted late at night and early in the morning, mostly in groping attacks. One woman was raped.
Local
But on Wednesday, sources told NBC New York that investigators are looking at his possible connections to some of those assaults.
In the latest incident, the woman had just gotten off the train and was walking along 36th Street when Martinez allegedly groped her and ran away.
It wasn't immediately clear if Martinez had an attorney.
Meanwhile, police held another safety meeting in Brooklyn Tuesday as concerns mounted over the increasing number of sex attacks.
"I don't think it's acceptable," said meeting attendee Sycelina Budhu. "It should've been solved by now."
