MILWAUKIE, Ore. -- Reports of a man cutting and gluing people's hair on a TriMet bus has prompted several women to come forward saying they were victimized by the same person.
Jared Walter, 22, was charged in Multnomah County court Monday with interfering with public transit and robbery after a woman said he cut her hair on a TriMet bus on New Year's Eve.
On Wednesday, Clackamas County deputies said they were investigating eight reports by women so far who said they had their hair cut or glued by Walter while in a public place.
The woman on the No. 33 line called 9-1-1 to report that a man had tried to cut her hair. She and the driver were able to stop the man, who was taken into custody at the Milwaukie Transit Center.
Tri-Met spokesman Bekki Witt said the agency has had three prior reports of such assault, including the attempts to put glue in women's hair. She did not know if Walter is connected to any of those incidents but during his court hearing, Deputy District Attorney Chuck French said Walter was a suspect in a number of incidents in which women riders have either had their hair cut or glued on TriMet buses.
"It's a pretty unusual activity," Witt said.
Surveillance tape from a Houston, Texas Walgreen's also shows a suspect just moments after super-gluing a 12-year-old's hair. The video is grainy, but police in Texas believe he may be Walter.
"When I touched myself it felt hot like it was sizzling on my hair. And I said, that guy put glue in my hair," recounted the young Houston victim.
The girl's hair began to fall out soon after the attack and more still had to be cut off after the glue dried.
The suspect is being linked to another glue attack at the same Walgreen's earlier in the day, one inside a Kroger grocery store, another inside a Marshall's, and two more inside an AMC movie theater.
"I turned to my friend and I said I can't move my head, my hair is stuck to my seat," says an unidentified victim. "Irritated, annoyed, upset. I'm like what's my hair going to be like. I don't understand what kind of satisfaction you get dumping glue in someones hair," recalls another unidentified victim.
Although Walter has not been charged in any of the Houston incidents, one of the Texas victims after seeing his Oregon mugshot told KHOU-TV that he appeared to be the man who attacked her.
Records show that the three incidents occurred on November 20th at 10 p.m., on the # 20 bus; December 24th at 8:45 p.m. on the # 33 bus; and December 31st at 1 p.m., also on the # 33 bus.
Walter was cited in December for not having proper fare to ride a bus.
In May, Walter was arrested for assault after police said he squirted super glue onto the hair of a woman at a hardware store in Pierce County, Washington.
The Oregonian reports that Walter has an outstanding warrant on an assault charge in King County, Wash., in connection with a hair-gluing incident. The newspaper says he also has been convicted in Texas of burglary with intent to commit a sex crime.
(KGW Reporters Scott Burton and Anne Yeager contributed to this report)
