ANAHEIM : Motel Sex Assault Prompts Warning

Police sent warnings to hotels and motels in the Disneyland area this week after repeated stakeouts failed to apprehend a suspect in the robbery and sexual assault of a family of Canadian tourists.

Anaheim Police Capt. John Flanagan said investigators for the past month have been searching for the masked gunman who reportedly walked into a motel room next to Disneyland on Feb. 21 and sexually assaulted a 40-year-old woman.

The incident occurred about 11:15 p.m. when, police said, a “very large man” wearing a ski mask entered the motel room with a gun and confronted four of the family members, including two teen-agers. The captain said the man then took a small amount of money and bound three of them before assaulting the woman.

A short time later, two other family members arrived and were also robbed and bound, police said. None of the victims was seriously hurt.

Fearing the man might strike again, Flanagan said investigators had been watching hotels and motels on the south border of the theme park, but the assailant was not found and officers recently abandoned the stakeout.

“We’d like nothing better than to catch this guy, but we can’t afford to” maintain the stakeouts, Flanagan said Friday. “You might think this kind of thing would happen a lot down there, but it is not a frequent thing.”

The captain said the department has been working with few details since the family unexpectedly left the area the morning after the incident without providing additional information.

Flanagan said he recently approved plans for an investigator to travel to the family’s home in Calgary, Alberta, and conduct more interviews.

Family members “talked with a patrol officer on the scene, but they left town before talking to an investigator,” Flanagan said. “We weren’t expecting that. When people are traumatized, they tend to want to leave that area.”

Citing the open investigation, authorities declined to identify the motel, other than to indicate its location just south of the theme park and west of Harbor Boulevard.

Flanagan said hotel and motel operators were notified early this week through the department’s Crime Alert Network, which connects the Police Department with about 30 hotels in the Disneyland area.

As part of the warning, Flanagan said, police are urging that hotel guests keep their doors closed.

“Once they (criminals) are in the room, they have control,” the captain said.