BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A series of incidents in Buffalo's parks have people concerned about their safety.
“I don't feel comfortable going out after dark," Wayne Scaperotta told 7 News. He said he walks in Delaware Park nearly every day. "I'm 73. I just don't feel comfortable anymore going out after dark.”
Sunday night, a woman was attacked as she was cutting through Shoshone Park in North Buffalo on her way home from a store on Main Street.
Police said the victim walked through the LaSalle Metro Station parking lot and went down a set of stairs into the park. At the same time, a man on a bike she had noticed earlier is accused of following her. He took a bike path down to where the stairs end.
According to police, the assailant punched the woman, threw her to the ground and subjected her to sexual contact that she did not consent to.
The woman managed to fight him off and then calm him down and then convinced him to go toward Hertel Avenue on the other side of the park. From there she got to a safe location where she called 911.
Police arrested Lamont Love, 34, of Buffalo and charged him with a felony count of sexual abuse.
Investigators are looking into any connections to other recent cases, including an attempted attack last fall near Hoyt Lake in Delaware Park.
7 News has learned that Love has a previous conviction: In 2017, he was convicted of a misdemeanor for punching a woman in the face during a domestic dispute.
He remained jailed Wednesday in the Erie County Holding Center in lieu of $10,000 bail.
Just as Buffalo police were holding a press conference Tuesday afternoon about the Shoshone attack, patrol officers on a directed patrol at Delaware Park arrested a man on charges of indecent exposure.
Buffalo Police Commissioner said Tuesday that he believes people should feel safe, no matter where they are. But people need to take precautions as well.
“You should be able to walk in any community safely," Gramaglia said. "And we do our best to provide that coverage.... to have our officers out there. But we can't be everywhere every time, every place.”
He advised people to be aware of their surroundings, to walk in well-lit areas and try not to walk alone.
Those were the kinds of common sense measures people out in Delaware and Shoshone parks said they take when they go out on walks.
Wendi Cartwright and her husband Mike were walking their dogs in Shoshone Park Wednesday.
“For the most part, I do feel safe," she said. "I usually do walk with my dogs or my husband or someone else. I'm really usually not here alone and if I'm alone, I obviously have the dogs. But in Shoshone Park, I won't run through there... We do a lot of running in the morning and I usually don't run through there unless Mike is with me."
On the Ring Road in Delaware Park, Russell Battaglia told 7 News that he makes a point of always walking with someone else.
“It feels safer because there's two of you instead of one," he said.
