Man Arrested in Connection With Westside Sex Assaults

A Culver City man arrested Friday is suspected of committing at least 10 rapes and attempted sexual assaults on the Westside, including a recent string of attacks in Culver City and Mar Vista, police said.

Hours after Oscar Salazar, 20, was arrested on suspicion of burglary, officers linked him to at least 10 actual or attempted sexual crimes, the Los Angeles Police Department announced at a news conference at the Pacific Area station. Investigators said Salazar had been booked on suspicion of six attacks and that more charges were expected.

Salazar was interviewed at length after his early morning arrest near an apartment complex in the 3600 block of Greenfield Avenue in Mar Vista. Police had responded to reports of a prowler.

“We’re very confident that this suspect is behind at least 10 sexual assaults, attempted assaults and rapes,” said Capt. Jim Tatreault. “We have physical evidence and other evidence that makes us very sure.”

News of the arrest came as a great relief, several Mar Vista residents said. Community organizer Tom Ponton said that before the rapes, the close-knit residential area was known for its low crime rate. Although a series of sexual assaults by the so-called Westside rapist occurred in neighboring areas last fall and winter, Mar Vista escaped trouble.

“Actually, I’m kind of surprised a rapist would pick this area,” Ponton said. “It’s a middle-class neighborhood where there are a lot of dogs, pickups and guns. It’s a dangerous neighborhood to go walk around in the back of people’s yards.”

The first two rapes occurred Oct. 8 and Oct. 11 in the 3800 and 3900 blocks of Berryman Avenue. The attacker entered the houses through unlocked doors and windows and assaulted the victims as they slept, police said. Both incidents occurred between 2:30 a.m. and 2:45 a.m.

The most recent attack occurred Wednesday morning when a woman beat back a man who had crawled through an open window of her house in the 3600 block of McLaughlin Avenue. It was about 2:40 a.m. when the attacker jumped on the woman. Police said she bit his hand and screamed, sending him running.

Regine Wood, a local crime watch activist, said a special meeting between police and residents had been scheduled for Monday, but it was canceled after Friday’s arrest.

Wood said residents were alarmed at this most recent string of attacks because they occurred in close proximity, she said. The first two occurred within a block of each other and at roughly the same time on different days.

“We were all becoming very alarmed because these blocks are quite close to each other,” Wood said. “We were also shocked because our crime rate is so very, very low. Neighbors here work very closely with police.”

Gail Abarbanel, director of the Rape Treatment Center at the Santa Monica/UCLA Medical Center, said women in Westside neighborhoods had been growing increasingly concerned.

“I think it’s just chance that we see two serial rapists operating in the same area in a year and a half,” Abarbanel said. “You have to realize, too, that there are a lot of rapes in Los Angeles that never make the papers.”