USC grad student accused of serial rapes, drugging women in Southern California
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A USC graduate student is accused of being a serial sexual predator, using drugs to rape and assault multiple women, and authorities are looking for additional victims, Los Angeles police announced Wednesday.
Sizhe Weng, 30, is being held without bail after being arrested and charged with eight felony counts involving drug-facilitated sexual assaults of young women he met since beginning his graduate studies in 2021.
Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said at a news conference that the Los Angeles Police Department began investigating Weng in January after German authorities reached out about a similar investigation in Europe involving a Chinese national who they learned was a student living in Los Angeles for several years. Eventually, the information gathered by LAPD and German authorities led to detectives serving a search warrant at Weng’s home in South L.A. near the USC campus, Hamilton said.
Hamilton said detectives arrested Weng Aug. 28 on suspicion of rape of an intoxicated person and searched his home.
On Sept. 2, Weng was charged with eight felony counts of rape, sodomy and sexual penetration involving drugs and anesthesia, Hamilton said. Weng has pleaded not guilty.
Hamilton, who oversees LAPD detectives, said they strongly suspected there were other victims and were encouraging them to come forward.
“If you have had any kind of contact with this individual, if you are linked to him through any other ways or any other means, our Robbery Homicide detectives would like to interview you regarding his actions,” Hamilton said.
Those alleged victims could be in L.A. and beyond, he said.
“As soon as we became aware of actionable information, we opened an investigation,” Hamilton said. “It took us a while to catch up to all the activities this individual has been involved in L.A.”
The deputy chief would not specify the drugs involved but said they, essentially, rendered the victims physically unable to respond. In real terms, he said, the drugs were similar to the date rape drug commonly called a roofie.
Weng had a student visa in California since 2021, but Hamilton said the department was unsure whether he was in the area before then and so had not ruled out incidents in earlier years.
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