Police Officer Suspected in Series of Rapes : Crime: A San Diego patrolman is arrested after an early-morning attack and shooting at state beach.

An off-duty San Diego police officer, arrested Thursday on suspicion of the attempted rape of a woman and the attempted murder of her two male companions at a state beach, is the prime suspect in a series of robberies and sexual assaults along the coast from Solana Beach to La Jolla.

Calling the situation the Police Department’s “worst nightmare come true,” Police Chief Bob Burgreen announced that Henry Hubbard Jr., 29, a patrolman for 4 1/2 years, is suspected of shooting the two men in the chest after they attempted to rescue the woman at Torrey Pines State Beach. Hubbard was shot in the hand, Burgreen said.

Hubbard was listed in fair condition Thursday after surgery for the bullet wound and treatment for other injuries. One man shot at the beach was listed in critical condition at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla; the other was in good condition. The woman was not injured.

Hubbard is the prime suspect in six cases since mid-June similar to Thursday’s assault. In all of the attacks, the victims were in their teens or early 20s, and the suspect was described as a black man, wearing a mask, who carried a gun and struck after 1 a.m.

On Thursday, as in some of the other cases, the victims were ordered at gunpoint to bind one another before the assaults and robberies. Hubbard, a patrol officer in the city’s northern beach areas, had worked his normal late shift Thursday and left work at 1 a.m.

Police said two men, identified as Aido Ochoa, 21, and Arthur Gracia, 23, were swimming in the ocean at Torrey Pines State Beach with a woman friend at 3:50 a.m. Thursday when the woman got cold and left the water. She screamed when she saw a masked man with a handgun sitting on a lifeguard tower. The two men raced from the water to rescue her.

The attacker ordered one of the men to tie the hands of the other with rope he had brought along. He then ordered the woman to tie the hands of the second man. When she refused, the gunman attempted to bind the man’s hands with a belt.

The woman, who ran off and hid in bushes, heard six shots, which were fired as the three men scuffled, police said. Ochoa and Gracia underwent surgery for chest wounds at Scripps Memorial Hospital. Ochoa was reported in critical condition and Gracia was listed in good condition.

Police said that Hubbard returned to his Mira Mesa home about 4:30 a.m. He told his wife, Karen, that his car had broken down at Interstate 805 and Mira Mesa Boulevard and that he had been shot in the hand by three men trying to rob him, police said. His wife drove him to UC San Diego Medical Center, where he was treated for the bullet wound as well as injuries to an ear and facial bruises.

Hospital officials contacted police, which is normal procedure when a patient has been shot. After surgery, police arrested Hubbard on suspicion of two counts of attempted murder and one count of attempted sexual assault. He has been suspended, and Burgreen said “termination proceedings will begin” at once.

According to police, an investigator at the scene of Thursday’s assault heard that Hubbard had checked into the hospital and made the first connection that the officer might be involved in the beach incident.

Detectives searched the beach Thursday and found evidence that they say links Hubbard to the attack, although they refused to divulge details. The beach was closed during the day. Four police divers searched the water for the gun.

In naming Hubbard as their prime suspect in the series of robberies and sexual assaults, police may have solved a string of attacks dating back to June 15 in Del Mar.

In each case, at least one man and one woman were victims and they were either robbed or a robbery was attempted. Women were sexually assaulted in four cases and rape was attempted in a fifth. There were five robberies and two robbery attempts. All of the attacks occurred between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.

Police issued a warning after the rapes July 20 of two girls, 13 and 14, at Windansea Beach in La Jolla. The girls were forced to tie up a male friend and were raped at gunpoint.

Thursday’s news shook the San Diego law enforcement community, still trying to recover from the shooting death of an off-duty sheriff’s deputy who was allegedly robbing an Encinitas home and beating the homeowner. A fellow officer shot Michael Stanewich as he tried to grab a knife.

Burgreen said he heard of the Hubbard situation in a telephone call to his home at 6 a.m.

“It was (Assistant Chief) Cal Krosch. . . . He said, ‘Your worst nightmare has happened.’ And he told me what (had) happened. And I said, ‘You’re right,’ ” Burgreen said.

There was no clear explanation at a press conference Thursday attended by Burgreen and Mayor Maureen O’Connor of how Hubbard’s apparent problems were overlooked.

“We screen as well or better than any police agency in this country,” he said. “We provide psychological screening, polygraph tests, thorough background tests. It is very tough to become a member of this department. For something like this to happen is almost unbelievable. But it happened. At this point, I have no explanation other than people change and apparently that’s what we have here.”

A Lancaster, S.C., native, Hubbard was a star baseball player who was drafted by the San Diego Padres in 1983. The outfielder played three seasons in the minor leagues in Spokane, Wash., and Reno, Nev. He was released after the 1985 season.

In 1986, when KFMB, a local television station, asked the San Diego Police Academy to recommend a cadet for them to profile, the academy chose Hubbard.

Times staff writers Alan Abrahamson, Barry M. Horstman and Peggy Y. Lee contributed to this report.