The son of an Oceanside woman who said she was awakened by a man sexually assaulting her is being lauded as a hero after chasing the intruder out of the house.
Dustin Aviss said it all started at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday morning when he awoke to his mom screaming.
He ran out to where his mom was sleeping in the living room when he saw the stranger running out of the house. But he wasn’t able to catch him.
“Basically both my doors were open and I see the soles of someone’s shoes running out and I just basically chased as fast as I could out the door,” Aviss said. “Unfortunately, I had so much adrenaline and I didn’t see which way he went. And I went the wrong direction.”
Oceanside police searched for the suspect near North Pacific Street and Surfrider Way after Aviss' mom reported the attempted sexual assault around 2:45 a.m.
Officers said it appears the man entered one of the units of the single-story apartment complex through an unlocked door in the residential beach community.
Aviss described the incident as startling, to say the least.
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“The guy basically snuck in. He was very quiet. She didn’t wake. I didn’t wake. She just woke up to a man touching her,” he said.
The suspect description details are vague, but police did find a hat in the area and are processing it as evidence.
The man was described as a man in his 30s, thing build wearing a white shirt, black shorts and a black hat and was last seen running west along Surfrider Way toward The Strand.
One woman taking her morning walk in the area was concerned.
She talked with NBC 7 and asked that she be identified only as Lisa.
“You get a kind of a false sense of security and then to hear this,” she said of living near the beach.
“I’m wondering whether or not I should continue on my walk.”
The victim was not treated for any physical injuries at the scene or taken to a nearby hospital, police said.
Aviss said he and his mother are still recovering from the ordeal and are emotionally exhausted.
“It’s like an invasion of all your privacy and everything,” he said. “And at her age and her condition, it just doesn’t help.”
Aviss said he’s never felt unsafe at his complex.
“I know everybody in this complex where I live very well,” he said. “It’s a very close-knit little area that we live in. It’s just unheard of.
