April 29, 2016 -- A week after an intruder assaulted an elderly Santa Monica woman in her bedroom and broke into a guest home blocks away on the same night, police released a video and a description of a person of interest in the case.

The woman, in her eighties, fought off the man, who broke into her home in the 700 block of 18th Street around 4:45 a.m. last Thursday, April 21.

She awoke and found the stranger standing over her bed, police spokesman Lt. Saul Rodriguez said. The woman screamed and the man “put his hand over the victims mouth and told her to shut up.”

The woman's startled family members then awoke and rushed to investigate the noises, but the intruder ran out a back door and fled.

The man was 5 feet, 6 inches to 5 feet, 9 inches tall, thin to medium in build, and was wearing a “hoodie” style sweatshirt with the hood up.

He is believed to be the same person who, about two hours before the attack, scaled the rear wall of a home in the 300 block of 16th Street, about a mile away.

After getting into the backyard, the intruder walked into an unlocked rear guest house, which was unoccupied, and set off an alarm. He ran off, and the resident was unable to provide police with a description.

On Thursday, however, investigators released a video that shows a thin man in a hoodie walking in an alley near the 300 block of 16th Street, where the first break-in occurred.

Police obtained the video from a resident who lives in the area, Rodriguez said.

Detectives said the man was wearing clear glasses, tight jeans and a hooded sweatshirt.

He is “a person of interest only at this time,” Rodriguez said, adding that investigators are still actively working on the case.

Anyone with information about the person shown should call Detective Hee Seok Ahn at 310-458-8452.

No other burglaries believed linked to the intruder had been reported as of Thursday, said Rodriguez.

“There have been no additional like incidents,” he said.

Although police consider the case urgent, Rodriguez said home burglaries overall are down so far this year compared to 2015.

From the start of the year through April 24, home burglaries decreased by 5.6 percent compared to the same period in 2015, Rodriguez said.

Part 1 crimes, serious offenses that include car thefts, burglaries, assaults, rapes, robberies and homicides, are down by 8 percent so far this year compared to the first four months of 2015, he said.

But last year also saw a sharp rise in thefts. From stolen bikes to property pilfered from buildings to purses and laptops snatched from unlocked cars—all types of thefts increased, from 2,645 in 2014 to 3,250 in 2015 ("Theft Top Reported Crime in Santa Monica for 2015, January 4, 2016).

Santa Monica Lookout Reporter Nikki Cervantes contributed to this report.