Police Hunt for Suspect in Break-in, Rape Assault
Police were searching Wednesday for a man who broke into an apartment, bound two women with tape and raped one of them in an attack early Monday, authorities said.
A similar attacked occurred March 16 in Reseda, but investigators don’t believe the same man committed both crimes, said Det. Ron Robbins of the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Division.
“When you are trying to relate crimes, you look at the motive and description of the suspect,” Robbins said. “At this point, there doesn’t appear to be a match between this [week’s incident] and known previous crimes.”
In Monday’s incident, the two women were sleeping when an unarmed intruder, wearing a ski mask, entered their ground-floor apartment, in the 5400 block of Newcastle Avenue, through an unlocked sliding glass door at about 3:30 a.m., Robbins said.
Confronting both women, he used tape to bind their hands behind their backs, Robbins said.
The intruder sexually assaulted one of the women, then released them and fled, Robbins said.
Anyone with information on the rape is asked to call the LAPD at (818) 756-8546 or 756-8543.
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