Attack Halted; Rapist Escapes

Residents of a Santa Ana neighborhood, among them a high school student carrying his football uniform, chased a man who sexually assaulted a woman in an apartment laundry facility early Monday. Police believe the man is the serial rapist they have been seeking.

Officers quickly surrounded a building where they thought the suspect was hiding, but a two-hour manhunt ended with no arrest. The early morning incident is the seventh attack since July 14 attributed to the assailant.

The attacks have become more frequent in the past weeks, heightening fears in a 30-block area around Bristol and 17th streets where the man has operated, typically striking in the evening or predawn hours. The victims have been women in their 20s or early 30s.

Monday’s attack was the closest the rapist has come to being captured, police said.

Authorities said the man confronted a woman in the Heritage Village courtyard just after 6 a.m. Monday and forced her at knifepoint into the complex’s laundry room, where police sketches of the assailant had been posted on the wall.

The attack was interrupted when a resident heard noises and opened the door to investigate. The assailant walked calmly out of the room but then ran when the victim screamed for help in Spanish. A handful of people who heard the commotion gave chase, residents said.

One teenage resident came the closest to catching the man, but was slowed by the football equipment he was carrying, authorities said.

Police dusted the door to the small laundry facility for fingerprints. Witnesses said the rapist was not wearing gloves.

The rapist “better hope that some of us women that are upset down here don’t catch him,” said Angela Herrera, who chased the man. “We all wanted to get him and give him a good beating.”

Herrera said she slipped and fell during the pursuit and last saw the man when he jumped a 5-foot-high fence and ran across Bristol Street. During the chase, the man peeled off a short-sleeve red, white and blue polo shirt and dropped it, police said. The back of the shirt, authorities said, carried the brand name Tommy Hilfiger.

Herrera said she won’t let her two daughters wait for the school bus outside the complex until the rapist is caught. After Monday’s attack, residents will keep a closer watch for suspicious people in the area, she said.

“If a person doesn’t belong here, they’re going to get questioned,” Herrera said.

Herrera said one of her daughters brought the victim of Monday’s attack to their apartment and called police. She said the victim told her she was “praying to God” the attacker would not kill her.

The woman told neighbors the rapist took her money, Herrera said.

Police used tracking dogs to follow the suspect from the laundry room to the Islander Apartments a few blocks away. Officers kept the buildings surrounded for more than two hours, bringing witnesses in and out of the complex, some with their heads covered with blankets so they could be spared identification.

“We feel confident that the suspect was [inside the complex] for some period of time,” Santa Ana Police Sgt. Raul Luna said.

Luna said the rapist might have been spooked by his near-capture Monday. “[But] one thing you have to remember, he’s a sexual predator . . . [he acts] regardless of the chances of getting caught.”

Police last week took the rare step of forming a task force of 30 officers and detectives to track down the rapist. Luna said officers are asking for the public’s help.

An updated composite sketch of the suspect was released after Monday’s attack.

“There’s definitely somebody in the community at large who knows something” about the rapist, Luna said.

The first attack occurred July 14, followed by a second Aug. 18. Two women were assaulted Sept. 10 and then two more last week. In two of those cases, the victims were attacked but not raped. After those failed attempts, the suspect attacked again within 45 minutes, authorities said.

The man, believed to be in his early 20s, has preyed on women inside of gated apartment complexes, attacking at night or in the early morning.

Part of the investigation includes looking for connections to other crimes in the area over the last year, Luna said.

“These types of individuals don’t start out raping women,” Luna said. “They start out doing something else,” he said.

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Searching for a Serial Rapist

Santa Ana Police continue to search for a rapist that has struck seven times in the last three months along a two-mile stretch of 17th Street. Five of the sexual assualts, including the latest attack on Monday morning, have occured west of Flower Street.

Source: Sgt. Raul Luna, Santa Ana Police

Graphics reporting by BRADY MacDONALD / Los Angeles Times