Fear Spreading After Assaults on Students

Many children were not allowed to go to school Thursday in Paramount because their parents said they were afraid to let them out of their sight.

A 14-year-old girl was abducted less than a block from her high school Wednesday morning just after the first-period bell rang. She was driven to a location outside Paramount and sexually assaulted for three hours, sheriff’s investigators said.

The attack was the third in the last three weeks in Paramount and nearby Santa Fe Springs. A 15-year-old girl was abducted last week in Paramount across the street from an elementary school, and a 13-year-old was pushed into a car and raped in Santa Fe Springs on Feb. 3, also near a school.

In all three cases, the girls were grabbed from behind, forced into a dark-colored compact car, driven to another location and sexually assaulted. Investigators believe that the same man, a Caucasian or light-skinned Latino in his 30s, is responsible for the three attacks.

“This is a very, very dangerous man,” Sheriff’s Sgt. David Anderson said. “He’s kidnapping single young women as they walk to school.”

Investigators distributed 700 fliers Wednesday evening to homes in the Paramount neighborhood where the attacks took place, informing residents of the crimes and warning them not to let children walk to school alone.

Authorities briefed Paramount school officials on the attacks and teachers spent the day talking about safety with students. A letter was sent to the 17,000 students in the Paramount district.

In the Santa Fe Springs attack, the 13-year-old was abducted about 3:30 p.m. as she walked to the public library. She was raped with a knife held to her throat and then driven by her attacker to Industry and told to get out of the car and run, said Chuck Drylie, a spokesman for the Whittier Police Department in Santa Fe Springs.

Sheriff’s investigators asked anyone with information to call (562) 220-2178 or (562) 220-2002.

A 13-year-old girl who was home from school said she was a friend of one victim. “She’s really in bad shape,” she said. “She’s really sad.”

Brenda Rincon, who lives one block from Paramount High School’s West Campus and across the street from where Wednesday’s attack took place, said she had not been able to sleep since seeing a composite sketch of the suspect on television.

She said she realized that she had seen him every single day for the last two weeks about 2:30 p.m., driving slowly along the streets near the school.

About 3 p.m. Wednesday, four hours after the assailant had dropped off his latest victim, Rincon’s daughter had turned to her mother and pointed out how strange it was that the man had not driven by that afternoon.

“I’m really scared right now,” Rincon said. “I don’t let my girls go into the yard.”