Cool-Headed Teen Girl Gets Help to Bust Pursuer

The San Leandro Police Department received a call at about 4 pm Tuesday about a 15-year-old girl who was being harassed by an adult.

Officers arrived on scene to find the victim was upset and scared. She said she had been walking home on the 14400 block of Bancroft Avenue, when she was tapped on the shoulder by a suspect who has been identified as Dayvon Crawford. 

Police said Crawford asked the victim “if he could get to know her” and made sexual comments about a specific body part. 

The victim told Crawford to leave her alone and walked away.  According to police, Crawford followed the victim as she walked north on Bancroft Avenue, continued to make comments and kept tapping the victim on the shoulder and in her abdominal area. 

The victim alertly walked to Walgreen’s and contacted an employee, who called the police. 

A description of Crawford was dispatched over police radio. An SLPD officer observed Crawford sitting at a bus stop at E. 14th Street and San Leandro Boulevard. He was detained, positively identified by the victim and arrested.

“The victim was brave and very smart to alertly seek help," said Police Department spokesman Lt. Jeff Tudor. "If it was not for her actions, the suspect could have fled undetected and victimized another juvenile."

Crawford is set to be arraigned in Hayward Superior Court today.