Man sexually abused 12-year-old girl in West Woodlawn

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A man sexually abused a 12-year-old girl Tuesday in the West Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side.

Police said at around 5:15 a.m., the man reached into an open first-floor window in the 6100 block of South Evans and pulled on the girl's top while trying to take a photo of her with his cellphone.

The girls screamed and startled the man enough for him to run off without physically harming her, police said. Officials said the man fled east.

"I leave the house about 5:15, 5:20 going eastbound to Cottage Grove and no one have run past me," said Dawn Wade, neighbor.

The homes on the South Side block are a mix of apartment buildings, abandoned buildings and family houses mostly behind locked gates. Police did not say how the man got to the window or past a locked gate.

"For them to be reaching into- it's a lot of drug addicts that walk these blocks. That's for sure. That's the first time I've heard anything like that about a child on this block," said Joanne Preer, neighbor.

He is described as a black man with big brown eyes, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, police said.

Anyone with information should call the Special Investigations Unit at (312) 492-3810.

Police are asking all people in the neighborhood to be extra vigilant, and to keep their gates, windows and doors locked.

The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.