Police in D.C. are looking for a man who grabbed and groped a 16-year-old girl as she walked to school in Northeast.

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In happened Thursday morning on Division Avenue, near Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue.

The H.D. Woodson High School student called her mother as soon as she suspected someone was following her. But soon after she told her mother, the line went dead. The teen told police the suspect grabbed her, covering her face with his hand. 

ABC7 spoke with the victim's aunt, as the young girl and her mother were too shaken to talk.

"At the same time, he was pushing her into the truck and beating her in the face," the girl's aunt explained.

The family said the man forced the teen inside his vehicle on Division Street and drove a block north, where the two allegedly struggled inside the SUV. The teen told investigators the stranger then groped and hit her. She continued to fight back, and the suspect let her go, dropping her off on a path. She then called her mother, who had already called 911 and waved down an officer for help finding the teen.

"I am very proud of her," the victim's aunt said. "She did whatever she could do, and she succeeded."

The school says a letter will be sent home and automated phone calls will be made to families to inform them of the incident.

Police say the suspect, a black man in his late 20s, wore his hair in cornrows and had a light complexion. He weighed 200 pounds and was 5'7" to 5'9" tall. He had crooked teeth and bulging eyes.

He was driving an older model, black SUV, police add.