Police search for sex assault suspect linked to beating of East L.A. woman, string of attacks
Authorities are searching for a 21-year-old man who is accused of assaulting a 67-year-old woman in East Los Angeles over the weekend, one in what they say is a string of attacks on women in the L.A. area.
Sergio Andrew Garcia approached the victim from behind, pulled her hair and threw her to the ground on Saturday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Garcia repeatedly punched the woman in the face, the department said in a news release.
Garcia was startled when a neighbor began to yell at him but continued to punch the woman two more times before he rode away on a bicycle, authorities said. He is described as being 5 feet 5 and 180 pounds.
The Sheriff’s Department told KTLA-TV Channel 5 that Garcia attacked the woman while she was in her yard in the 1000 block of Fraser Avenue around 6:15 a.m. Garcia allegedly pulled down her pants and underwear during the attack, according to the Sheriff’s Department, which declined to say whether the case is being handled as a sexual assault.
The woman told the news station that she had pain all throughout her body, two black eyes and required a neck brace.
Garcia is wanted in connection with four other attacks in the city of L.A., including two on the same day as the assault on the 67-year-old woman, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Authorities searched a Henderson, Nev., home for computers and other items linked to the unsolved slaying of Tupac Shakur, sources told The Times.
About three hours after the East L.A. assault, at 9:20 a.m., Garcia approached a woman who was walking home from church in the 1300 block of South Alvarado Street, hit her in the face multiple times, knocking her unconscious, and robbed her, the LAPD said.
About 15 minutes later, in the 1300 block of South Burlington Avenue, he grabbed a woman who was rummaging through the trunk of her car and sexually assaulted her, police said.
According to the LAPD, the string of attacks began July 10, when Garcia is suspected of following a woman as she walked under the 110 Freeway near Olympic Boulevard and L.A. Live Way, sexually assaulting her and trying to pull the woman’s clothes off.
On July 11 near Chick Hearn Court and Georgia Street in downtown Los Angeles, Garcia slapped a woman on her backside and ran away, the LAPD said.
Garcia was previously arrested in Los Angeles County in July 2021 on suspicion of battery and cruel or inhuman corporal punishment against a child, according to court records.
Garcia is known to carry a satchel over his shoulder with the word “Gucci” spelled in red letters, according to authorities.
Anyone with information can contact the East Los Angeles sheriff’s station at (323) 264-4151 or LAPD Det. Quintanilla at (213) 833-3750.
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