Rape Suspect Commits Suicide as Police Arrive to Arrest Him

A 27-year-old man, suspected in the brutal rape and stabbing of a young woman in a laundromat, shot and killed himself when police arrived at his home, Cypress authorities said.

Michael Antonio Grand was suspected of assaulting the 18-year-old woman shortly before 7 p.m. Friday in a laundromat at 4350 Lincoln Ave. in Cypress, Lt. Bob Bandurraga said.

Police said the victim, whose name was withheld, was in the laundromat when a man she later identified as Grand ordered her to the rear bathroom area, where he forced her to disrobe. He was armed with a knife.

The woman was raped and stabbed twice in the chest, but still managed to chase the suspect out of the laundromat and into a nearby liquor store before she collapsed. The assailant ran out the back door of the liquor store and jumped a wall to escape.

But the victim was able to give police a description of her attacker, and a witness in a bar in the same shopping complex matched Grand’s name to the description, Bandurraga said.

Police then matched the name and description to a police photograph of Grand taken for a prior arrest on a minor charge, Bandurraga said. Police visited the victim in Long Beach Memorial Hospital, where she was shown the photo and identified Grand as her attacker.

Acting on that information, police arrived Saturday morning at Grand’s Bloomfield Avenue mobile home. They had a warrant for his arrest on charges of rape, attempted murder, attempted robbery and attempted sodomy.

The suspect’s mother allowed officers to enter the home and directed them to Grand’s locked bedroom door, Bandurraga said.

The officers heard moaning from inside, forced the door open and “found the suspect . . . had shot himself once in the chest with a .22-caliber rifle,” he said.

Officers gave Grand cardiopulmonary resuscitation until paramedics arrived. He was flown by medical helicopter to Long Beach Community Hospital, where he later died, Bandurraga said.

The woman remains in “serious but stable condition” at Long Beach Memorial Hospital, Bandurraga said. “She’s going to be all right. She had a punctured lung,” he said.