Eighteen-year-old Lourdes Lopez is aware now that a man, maybe more than one, is going around Chula Vista groping women and girls while they're walking during the day.

Her father heard about the attacks on the news a few weeks ago and has been picking her up after school at a trolley station near Broadway. "He doesn't want me to me alone in this area," she said.

She said she's surprised that many of her classmates at her school weren't aware of the assaults until she told them about it. "It's important that people know."

Sixteen groping incidents have been reported in or near Broadway since September, police said. In all the cases, victims were walking on public streets when they were grabbed over their clothing and sexually assaulted by a man who then ran away.

The series of incidents has women in the area frightened.

"It's scary. If I go walking to the store I don't want to be attacked," Sulema Beltran, 23, said while waiting at a bus stop on H Street with her mother by her side. Esther Beltran said she heard about the assaults for the first time this week and told her daughter immediately "not to walk alone and to be careful."

Police aren't certain whether they are dealing with one attacker or more because of varying descriptions of the assailant.

"The assaults are so sudden people are not observing where he's coming from," said Bernard Gonzales, the spokesman for Chula Vista police.

The police department has scheduled a community forum at 6 p.m. on Feb. 17 at the Chula Vista High School Performing Arts Center, 820 Fourth Ave., to discuss the cases, give safety tips and answer questions.

"We want the public to be aware that this is occurring," Gonzales said, adding that officers will also stress the importance of being a good witness.

The latest incident happened Wednesday on Broadway near West J Street. A woman told police that a man walked up to her and grabbed her breasts. The man ran into an apartment complex, which the police surrounded, but could not find him.

The attacker in this case was described as Latino, about 30 years old, 5-feet-2, slender build, dark hair, clean shaven, wearing blue jeans, a gray shirt and a gray baseball hat. In other cases descriptions have ranged from a Latino man to a light-skinned black man, between 18 and 35 years old, 5-feet-5 to 6 feet tall, thin to medium build. In most cases the attacker wore a hooded sweatshirt.

Gonzales said police are concerned that the attacks have become more brazen.

Last week, a teen-age girl was groped while walking home from school. The attacker grabbed her buttocks, ran ahead of her and then turned around and smiled at her, Gonzales said.

"The individual or individuals who are doing this are doing this in public which means that for whatever reason they have no fear of getting caught," he said, "or are getting a thrill of doing it in public."

See video in Spanish.

Leonel.sanchez@sandiegored.com