Authorities said the strings of assaults began Wednesday night on Morris Street near 13th Street.
Three woman were walking when a man walked up and began beating them. One suffered a broken nose, the others had lacerations and swollen lips, police said.
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The brutal assault was captured on surveillance video and has left neighbors in the area frightened.
"It's disgusting and it wasn't even late...people want to go have dinner and have a good time and they have to worry about walking home and get beat up," said Karen DiOrio.
Rick Ames heard the screams, and thought a woman may have been raped. He approached the scene as his wife called 911, but thought otherwise at the last second.
"I didn't know if he had a gun, so I just stopped," said Ames.
During a news conference on Friday afternoon, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Frank Vanore said the suspect's motive is unclear.
"He made some utterances, they didn't make sense. We don't know what he was trying to say. Then he left the area and fled on foot," said Vanore.
Minutes later, Noelle Liquori said she was waiting for her boyfriend to get off work around the corner on the 1900 block of 13th Street when the man attacked her.
"Seemingly out of nowhere. The first hit came from behind. He hit me in the ear, put me down and punched me in the face a couple of times," she said.
Liquori said she lost consciousness.
"The last thing I remember I was being dragged on my back. He had my feet, dragging me down the pavement. I kept kicking him and screaming to get someone's attention," she said.
Investigators say a man with similar description is accused of sexually assaulting a woman as she walked into work on the 6100 block of Ridge Avenue in Philadelphia's Roxborough section on Thursday morning.
Another woman was also beaten in Whitpain Township, Montgomery County a few hours later around 10 a.m.
Whitpain Township police captured Malcolm White of Brooklyn, New York shortly after that assault as he ran down the road.
White is now being held in a Montgomery County jail. He is charged with aggravated assault and other related crimes.
Philadelphia police now have an arrest warrant for the Roxborough sexual assault, but they need more evidence to connect him to the South Philadelphia assaults.
"He is definitely our suspect in the sexual assault because we have an approved warrant. The other two we have work to do to connect him," said Vanore.
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