Photo: Erick Hernandez walks to jail
The suspect in a violent sexual assault on a main thoroughfare in Santa Ana has been captured, thanks to surveillance footage and public assistance. Erick Alvarez Hernandez’s attacking of the female victim took place in the late evening of January 5th, 2019, next to a bus shelter in the 1000 block of West MacArthur Boulevard.
The victim, a woman in her 50s, was awaiting her bus when the 27-year-old Santa Ana resident assaulted her on the sidewalk. An arriving OCTA bus captured the attack on its surveillance video system. As the bus approached, Hernandez, wearing a Dallas Cowboys #82 jersey, fled eastbound from the site of his crime.
When Hernandez was first arrested
Santa Ana Police detectives released information about the attack and asked for public assistance. Thanks to high media attention and tips from the public, information arose that helped in identifying the suspect: Shortly before the incident, the man later identified as Hernandez had visited the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant on the 3800 block of South Bristol in Santa Ana, about half of a mile from the crime scene.
While he had been asked to leave the venue because of his belligerent behavior, the Santa Ana Police Department said in a statement, the information received from the restaurant assisted in identifying the suspect.
Hours of surveillance and investigation allowed detectives to establish Hernandez as the perpetrator. Officials arrested him as he was leaving his job in Irvine, another Orange County city, on January 10, 2019 and took him into custody. Erick Alvarez Hernandez received multiple charges of sexual assault including kidnapping. He was booked into the Orange County Jail with a set bail of $1,000,000.
