Carjackers Who Brutalized Covina Couple Described

Police on Wednesday released more details on the men who carjacked and brutalized a Covina couple this week.

Authorities said the married couple had just left a relative’s house in the area about 10 p.m. Monday. “They had just gotten into their [truck] and were ready to drive home,” said Det. Sean Mahoney of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Division.

The couple were parked behind The Ventura, a private banquet hall in the 13900 block of Ventura Boulevard, when two men, one armed with a semiautomatic handgun, forced their way into the couple’s black Ford pickup.

During the 2 1/2-hour attack, police said, the men raped the woman and beat her husband. The couple told police they were forced to drive to an automatic teller machine on Ventura Boulevard and Cedros Avenue. But the husband, police were told, did not have money in his account.

At about 12:30 a.m., police said, the victims were told to drive to Matilija Avenue and Valleyheart Drive, where a man in a car waited. The carjackers then got into the second vehicle, which sped away, police said.

The man and woman were robbed of money, jewelry and a wallet, police said.

LAPD officials, who spoke Wednesday night at a regularly scheduled meeting of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. at The Ventura, said they do not believe the carjacking was connected to the recent kidnapping of Christopher Rawlings, who was forced into the trunk of his Bentley. Rawlings died from injuries when his kidnappers crashed the car. No suspects have been found.

Sgt. Jake Bushey, a spokesman for the LAPD, said the man who pointed the handgun at the Covina couple was described by the victims as an African American, between 20 and 25 years old and weighing about 200 pounds. His hair was in cornrows and he was wearing a gray sweatshirt and black pants, Bushey said.

The second man was also described as African American, about 18 years old and weighing about 130 pounds. He wore a gray hooded sweatshirt, Bushey said.

The driver of the getaway car was said to be an African American male wearing a red sweatshirt, he said.

Police described the getaway car as a red two-door Toyota or Mazda with a black stripe on the driver’s side.

The victims were taken to a hospital early Tuesday and released later that morning.

Police are asking anyone with information on the crime to call the Van Nuys Division at (818) 756-8747.