Police search for man who attacked girl in mall bathroom

CLEARWATER (FOX 13) - Clearwater police are looking for a man who stalked a 6-year-old girl at the Macy’s inside Countryside Mall Friday night.

Detectives say the man followed her into a bathroom stall and tried to hold her down.

“He barges into the stall where she's at, puts his hand over her mouth, pushes her to the floor and it was her screams which led him to stop whatever it was he was about to do,” said Rob Shaw with the Clearwater Police Department.

The girl was physically unharmed, but investigators say the attacker ran and got away.

They hope someone will recognize him for the surveillance photos taken inside the mall.

“Our hope is that someone sees that picture and recognizes hey that's my neighbor, that's the guy that lives down the street, I see that guy at the convenience store once in a while,” said Shaw. “The image is pretty clear so that if you know that individual by looking at that photo you would recognize him.”

Police are also hoping to find two women who they think were with the attacker right before he assaulted the child.

The girl made it out to her father safely.

“I don't believe she was physically hurt but emotionally traumatized I'm sure she was quite devastated and quite shaken up by it,” said Shaw. “I'm sure the father as well was quite shaken up by it. That's one of the reasons were appealing to the public to help find thus individual because we have no idea what his motives were.”

Anyone with information on the suspect or the women he was spotted with is asked to call Clearwater police.