City Council to Offer Reward in Attacks on Women

The City Council today is expected to announce a $25,000 reward for the capture of a man suspected of sexual assaulting four elderly women in Hancock Park and Hollywood, the latest on Tuesday.

That attack occurred at 2:30 p.m. in the Carthay Circle neighborhood in Hancock Park, about a block north of La Cienega Boulevard. A man described as 25 to 35, about 6 feet tall, 180 to 200 pounds with olive skin and a receding hairline bound a woman in her 80s with duct tape and assaulted her, LAPD Deputy Chief David Kalish said.

The man got into the house through an unlocked side door after the woman wouldn’t let him in through the front, Kalish said.

The first attack occurred July 27, when an 87-year-old woman was sexually assaulted in her home near 3rd and June streets in Hancock Park, police said. The man also robbed the women, taking money and jewelry.

LAPD detectives are working with other departments to determine whether there is any connection between the four assaults and others in Southern California, Kalish said.

On Tuesday night, a 75-year-old woman was attacked in Huntington Beach. Police are investigating whether that assault may have been committed by the so-called Belmont Shore rapist, suspected of at least a dozen assaults since 1996.

“This is a top priority for us,” Kalish said. The LAPD is disseminating information about the assaults through volunteers, community and religious groups and through mass e-mails.

The attacker “has hit several times in the area, and we are gravely concerned for the safety of women in the community,” Kalish said. The reward money for the man’s capture was sponsored by council members Tom La Bonge and Jack Weiss.

Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at (818) 756-8309 or (877) LAW-FULL.