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On October 25, California native Joel Hernandez was arrested by San Bernardino authorities for allegedly s**ually assaulting a woman and robbing another.
According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office, 22-year-old Joel Hernandez was reported to authorities after he was accused of stealing $500 from a woman who was leaving an ATM machine near Victorville's Amargosa road.
After Joel Hernandez was detained, California authorities noted that he was in possession of stolen cash and two masks. While one was a purple balaclava, the other was a clown mask based on the character of Pennywise from the film adaptation of Stephen King's book It.
Joel Hernandez is currently detained at High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto, California. The New York Post reported that his bail has been set at $200000.
Authorities suspect that Hernandez could be a serial predator
As per the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office, both of Joel Hernandez's victims were women in their 50's.
After the second victim called the authorities, claiming that Hernandez had robbed her, authorities discovered that he had carried out an assault earlier in a grocery store parking lot in Bear Valley Road.
The other woman claimed that Hernandez had inappropriately grabbed her. After arriving at the scene of the second robbery, authorities identified Joel Hernandez because of his bright red sweatshirt.
In an official statement, Mara Rodriguez, a San Bernardino Sheriff's Office spokesperson, said that after his detainment, Hernandez was identified by his alleged first victim from the Bear Valley road assault.
The statement read:
"(The woman) positively identified Hernandez as the suspect who s**ually assaulted her."
She added:
“I know that he did approach (the first victim) from behind while she was at her car, and he basically grabbed her and held her for just a matter of seconds."
Rodriguez explained that further evidence of the assaults were found in Hernandez's backpack.
She continued:
“He had a backpack he was carrying. In that backpack, they located the money that was taken from the victim, as well as some other items that helped ID him as the suspect. They also recovered that plastic clown mask and another ski mask that he was apparently wearing at the time.”
According to Fox LA, due to the brazen nature of both attacks, as well as the fact that they occurred within minutes of each other, California authorities are exploring the possibility that Hernandez may be a serial predator with multiple other unreported victims.
KTLA reported that the San Bernardino Police Department said there is reason to believe there is at least one other assault involving the suspect.
