Denver police are investigating two assaults that took place on the High Line Canal Trail within a week of each other.
One assault happened Friday in a section near East Dartmouth Avenue and South Forest Street, police said. A woman was struck about 12:30 p.m.
The victim managed to snap a photo of the suspect as he was walking away, police said. Investigators used the photo and a sketch created by witnesses in the area to identify 25-year-old Demaricus Dewayne Bookhart, according to prior reports.
When police returned to the canal to look for Bookhart, officers found him with a blue hooded sweatshirt and a skateboard, according to a probable cause statement written by police.
Officers were explaining why they were detaining Bookhart when he said, “Oh, the fight?” When one officer asked Bookhart if he had been involved in a fight, he told them it was with a woman and a dog when the dog tried to bite him, the statement said.
Bookhart was charged with second-degree assault.
The first assault happened around 3 p.m. Aug. 18 along the same spot on the trail. At first, the victim was unsure whether she had fallen or had been attacked, police said.
Police now have determined it was an assault, said Cmdr. Barb Archer of the Denver Police Department’s major crimes unit. Police are working to develop a suspect in that attack, she said.
Bookhart’s criminal record includes convictions for failing to register as a sex offender and for absconding while on parole, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records.
