Youth Arraigned in Rape of Girl in North Hills

A 17-year-old youth was arraigned Thursday on suspicion of raping an 11-year-old girl in front of her teen-age sister in a North Hills alley, and is under investigation in another rape that occurred nearby a few hours later.

Police said the 11-year-old girl and her 17-year-old sister were on their way home about 10:15 p.m. Monday after eating dinner at a restaurant when a gunman accosted them on Roscoe Boulevard.

The assailant ordered the two sisters, who were pushing a shopping cart in which their 2-year-old brother and 5-year-old sister were sleeping, into a nearby unlighted alley behind apartment houses on the 15100 block of Roscoe Boulevard, said Los Angeles Police Detective Craig Rhudy.

The attacker initially demanded money from the girls, police said.

When they said they had no money, the man forced the 11-year-old and her older sister behind a dumpster, where he attempted to molest the 17-year-old, then raped the younger girl at gunpoint, said Lt. Harvie Eubank.

The younger children continued to sleep in the shopping cart and apparently were unaware of the incident, Eubank said.

The arrested youth was arraigned in Sylmar Juvenile Court and ordered held without bail, authorities said.

He is charged with four counts of kidnaping, one count of rape, one count of attempted robbery, one count of forced oral copulation and one count of attempted forced oral copulation, police said.

The second rape occurred several blocks from the first and about two hours later, police said. The victim in that attack is a 25-year-old North Hills woman. The case will be presented to the district attorney’s office Friday, said Police Detective Frank Bachman.

Police said the description of the assailant in the attack fits the youth charged with raping the 11-year-old.