SHREWSBURY, MASS. (WHDH) – Shrewsbury police are investigating after a female student was reportedly physically grabbed by an unknown older male while on her walk home from the school bus.
“Last evening the police began investigating a report that a female student who took the late bus home from Shrewsbury High School, and who was dropped off at Stoney Hill Road and walked along a path in a wooded area to the Cherry Hill/Cherry Street neighborhood with another student, reported that she was physically grabbed by an unknown older male individual,” Shrewsbury Superintendent of Schools Joe Sawyer said in an email to families. “The report indicated that the student reacted and the individual released her and ran off.”
The 16-year-old high school junior told her family the man grabbed her arm, put his hand over her mouth, and dragged her a short distance into a wooded area, the girl’s father said.
A neighbor’s doorbell camera captured the police response after a call for help late Monday afternoon. Officers used K-9s and drones to search for the man in the woods.
“She was coming off the late school bus, she’s a high school student, and instead of dropping off here where she normally gets picked up, on the corner there, I guess they only drop in certain places, and they dropped her over on the other side of the pond, so she had to walk across the path,” said Richard Daverio, who saw the police response.
The girl’s father said his 14-year-old son was walking a few steps ahead, heard her scream, and ran back to find her in the woods.
Surveillance video shows a boy jogging toward the wooded path toward the victim’s home, leading police to the area where the incident happened.
As Tuesday was an early release day for students in Shrewsbury, students got off the school bus in the area just before noon. Shrewsbury police stepped up patrols.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 508-841-8577.
This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.
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