ST. LOUIS • Police have released a sketch of a man wanted for the attempted rape of a woman Dec. 6 on the city's south side.

The victim told police she got out of her car at Oletha Avenue and Hereford Street at about 10 p.m. in the Northhampton neighborhood and was walking toward Potomac Street when the attacker approached her from behind, displayed a gun and tried to pull her into an alley.

The victim threw an object at her attacker and he dropped the gun in the 4900 block of Potomac. He shoved her to the ground, picked up the gun and ran. The victim suffered minor scrapes on her hands.

The victim described the attacker as a black man in his mid 20s, about 5 feet 6 inches tall, with short, black, braided hair. He was wearing a yellow, hooded sweatshirt and dark pants.

Stranger on stranger crimes are rare, regardless of the neighborhood, noted St. Louis police Capt. Mary Warnecke.

"We really wanted to get the sketch out there and maybe spark a little thought in someone's mind," she said. "Certainly he was in the area for a reason.