Rapist Menaced Sleeping Children of His Victim

As her five children and four other housemates slept early Saturday, a 27-year-old woman was raped by a man, armed with a knife and a gun, who threatened to harm the children if she resisted, police said.

Sgt. Bob Wyse said it wasn’t known how the assailant gained entry to the two-bedroom home in the 700 block of West 5th Street about 4 a.m.

“It appears that people were sleeping in a number of rooms--in the living room, in the bedrooms, on the floor,” Wyse said. “It was a transient-type of house . . . in an area of overcrowded houses.”

Wyse said the children were in the bedroom where the attack took place but were not harmed.

He said the attacker told the woman: “Do you want me to hurt them? Come on.”

The suspect was described as about 5 feet 6 inches tall, 190 pounds, and wore a baseball cap and short pants.