Neighbors Ignore Girl’s Screams in Gang Rape

Neighbors ignored the screams of a 16-year-old girl who was gang-raped and beaten by 10 youths for more than two hours in a Crenshaw-area apartment, police and witnesses said Thursday.

Investigators from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southwest Division said five of the youths--two 18-year-olds and three juveniles--were taken into custody, but later were released for lack of evidence. Detective Lt. Nick Bakay said they could be rearrested after further investigation.

Meanwhile, the search continued for the other five, who are wanted for questioning.

Detectives said the girl--a summer student at Dorsey High School--was recovering from her ordeal. Witnesses said she finally escaped her attackers by running--half naked--across the street to a grammar school, where staff members clothed her and called police.

Neighbors said the attack occurred in the second-floor apartment of a woman who lives there with her teen-age son. The neighbors said neither has been seen since the incident.

Detective Sgt. Douglas Dreyer--who is leading the investigation--declined to identify the victim and suspects and refused to disclose any details about the case.

‘Sensitive Matter’

“This is a very sensitive matter,” he said. “We still have five suspects outstanding and we must protect the victim.”

Neighbors in the attractive apartment complex in the 4000 block of south Hillcrest Drive said they saw the youths drive up in three cars about 10 a.m. Monday and climb the stairs to the apartment. The neighbors said the girl apparently was with them at the time, but initially there were no sounds of struggling or violence.

“At first, it sounded like a party,” said one neighbor, working in a garage at the rear of the complex, who asked not to be identified.

“You hear the loud music, intermittently, and maybe a little shouting,” he said. “You know how kids are. . . .

“Then I heard some sort of banging around and I heard screams. Real screams. And I heard a girl shout, ‘I’ll tell my brother what you made me do. . . .’ And I heard her crying. . . . It went on for quite a while.”

The man was asked why he didn’t call the police.

“I didn’t give it any thought,” he replied. “I was busy. Working on my car.”

The manager of the apartment complex, Debra Moore, 30, said she was away at the time, but tenants told her later that they had heard “hollering and screaming” and “the sound of things falling” even though the music was “cranked way up” in the apartment where the girl was being attacked.

She said the tenants told her that after the sobbing girl fled across the street, the youths walked nonchalantly out, “like they had been having a good time,” got in their cars and drove away.

“Some of those people told me they didn’t call police because they thought it was ‘just a fight,’ ” Moore said. “I don’t care what they thought. If they heard screams, they should have called the police.

“I’m angry at them for not calling, for not helping. I’m afraid that if something happened to me, they wouldn’t do anything.”