Suspect in 4 Sexual Attacks Is Caught

A suspected serial rapist who Los Angeles police believe targeted homeless women was chased down and captured early Thursday after trying to elude officers by running across the Hollywood Freeway.

Osiel Marquez, 30, of North Hollywood is suspected of at least four attacks dating to December 2003, said Deputy Chief Ronald Bergmann of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The rapist targeted Latinas in their late teens and early 20s, and typically struck in the predawn hours.

On Dec. 18, an intruder robbed a couple of jewelry in their apartment on Runnymede Street, then sexually assaulted the woman.

Other sexual attacks occurred Feb. 4 and Feb. 7, and again on Thursday.

Investigators said the suspect often posed as a police officer. He would walk up to a parked vehicle, flash a light into the car and ask the occupants for identification. He carried a radio and would sometimes flash a fake badge, police said.

“A lot of the victims thought he was a police officer,” Bergmann said. “He picked on the homeless because they aren’t likely to report crimes.”

The victims told police the man would point a 9-millimeter pistol at them and force the male occupant out of the vehicle.

The women were driven to other locations where they were raped or sexually assaulted.

The North Hollywood area station was preparing to issue a warning Thursday when police received a report of an attack on a woman at a park near the Hollywood Freeway, Bergmann said.

The woman fought off her attacker, later identified as Marquez, investigators said. Within 10 minutes, patrol officers spotted a man fitting the description given by the woman.

Before they could take him into custody, Marquez jumped over a concrete barricade and ran up onto the freeway, where he was finally chased down and arrested by patrol officers.