Clayton County police said the man who raped a woman at knifepoint inside her home this weekend is linked to seven rapes.
Police responded to the sexual assault in the 7000 block of Southlake Parkway on Saturday. Authorities said a man forced a woman inside her home at knifepoint and started raping her, but was interrupted by her boyfriend.
Authorities said the man ran away before police arrived. In a statement, police said it canvassed the area with police dogs but couldn’t find the man.
“(The police department) is working diligently by increasing uniform patrols as well as adding foot patrols in the areas of the attacks,” police said in a statement.
Authorities believe the man is the same one linked by DNA to several other attacks that happened in the area.
RELATED: Police seek man linked to 5 Clayton County rapes
Five of the rapes happened between July 2015 and May 2017 and involved black female victims, police said. All but one lived in apartment or townhouse complexes in Clayton County, in the area of Battle Creek Road between the cities of Jonesboro and Riverdale, AJC.com previously reported.
Police said at a news conference Friday morning that the women are typically attacked between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. and that some of the victims had children who witnessed the assaults.
Investigators previously said they didn’t suspect the cases were linked because the man did not use the same method to intimidate or gain access to the victims. The GBI later found evidence confirming the victims were assaulted by the same person.
Clayton County police released two sketches of the alleged rapist based on two different accounts. Anyone who can provide information about the man’s identity is asked to contact the police department.
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