Local News in Brief : Boy, 10, Honored as Hero in Rape Case

When 10-year-old Aaron Peter saw a woman being raped in a garage near his Palms apartment last August, he ran to a telephone and called the police. The rapist fled before the police arrived, but Peter led investigators to a nearby convenience store where he had seen the man several times.

Four hours later, after reviewing videotapes from a store surveillance camera, Peter identified the rapist, who was arrested and later pleaded guilty to the assault.

The elementary school student was the youngest of seven people honored Wednesday in Van Nuys by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office for “heroic acts in coming to the aid of a victim of violent crime “

Peter’s mother, Daryl Doyon, said her son didn’t tell many of his classmates about his heroism, insisting that it was a “private thing.”