Rally Targets Elusive Hyperion Bridge Rapist

Anger at a rapist who has attacked 19 girls, most of them high school students, prompted a rally Friday night at John Marshall High to urge the public to help find him.

“For eight years, we have been victims of a rapist, forced to take alternative routes because we don’t feel safe in our community,” Marisol Pineda, a 16-year-old junior at the Los Feliz-area school, told the crowd. “Together, we can make the community safe.”

The sexual predator, nicknamed the Hyperion Bridge rapist because several attacks have occurred on or near the walkway by Marshall High, has attacked girls since 1995, according to police. Most were 11 to 17 years old.

At least three have been raped; others have been groped or fondled or have broken free after being grabbed.

“No one should ever be harmed going to school,” Los Angeles Councilman Tom LaBonge said at the rally, which also was attended by several detectives working full-time on the case.

Despite several leads, detectives have no suspects.

“We are pleading with the community: Contact us and let us know, because we have to stop this madness,” Det. David Cedeno said.

The rally was intended to increase community awareness, said Mary Rodriguez, whose 15-year-old daughter attends Marshall.

“Without support in the community, that opens the door for the guy to attack again,” Rodriguez said.

The rally was organized by the Marshall High’s chapter of Students Together Organizing Peace, which is a project of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women.

In all, nine attacks have occurred around the bridge. Eight of the victims were Marshall students.

Three students at Franklin High School in Highland Park have been attacked walking to or from school.

One of the most recent attacks occurred on the grounds of Roosevelt High School in East Los Angeles, police said.

The attacker is described as a heavyset Latino, 35 to 50 years old, police said. He has large, fleshy hands, a potato-shaped nose and a potbelly.

He is usually unshaven, has a strong body odor and wears a beanie knit cap.

A $20,000 reward is offered by the city of Los Angeles for information leading to prosecution.

After the rally, the students and community members marched to the Hyperion Bridge, which is about a mile away. There, they chanted “We’re taking back the bridge.”