Fugitive Convicted of Campus Rapes Is Shot by Police
A convicted sex offender wanted in California was shot and arrested Saturday morning.
Charles Stevens, 46, was arrested after Londonderry police and FBI agents, acting on a federal warrant, stopped the car he was riding in.
During the arrest, Officer Mark Cagnetta fired three shots at Stevens. One of the shots hit Stevens in the shoulder.
Stevens, who is also known as Kenneth Merrill, is wanted by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department for failing to register as a convicted sex offender, a parole violation.
Bill Starbuck, an investigator with the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office, said Stevens was originally arrested in San Jose for stalking and raping at least eight women at San Jose State University in 1978 and 1979. He was released from prison in 1994.
He was convicted on charges including sodomy, rape, forced oral copulation and robbery.
State police said the injury is not life-threatening and that Stevens remains under guard at a hospital.
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