‘I want to make you mine’: Man wearing Virgin Mary T-shirt attacks two L.A. women, police say
Police are searching for a man who they said brazenly attacked two women this week inside their apartments in East Hollywood and Echo Park.
Authorities released surveillance footage Tuesday hoping that would help detectives identify and find him before his attacks escalate and become more violent.
“He is a sexual predator and we need to get him off the streets,” said Officer Tony Im, spokesman of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Surveillance video captured the man walking to the front door of one woman’s apartment building in the 800 block of North Mariposa Avenue in East Hollywood and waving to a resident, who opened the door and let him inside. The man is seen walking casually through the lobby around 12:20 p.m. Monday before using his green shirt displaying an image of the Virgin Mary to grab the doorknob of the woman’s apartment, which she had left unlocked while she went to the building’s laundry room. Still holding a plastic bag and a beverage in one hand, the man slips inside.
Once inside, the man waited for the victim, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
She returned to her apartment five minutes later to find the man standing behind the door, police said. He covered her mouth with one hand and pushed her against the wall. The woman fell the ground and began screaming.
Her yells scared off the man, who ran out of her apartment, police said.
An hour and a half later, the man was recorded on video walking through the parking garage of another apartment building in the 1600 block of Cortez Street in Echo Park, police said.
At about 1:50 p.m., the man entered the building and the apartment of the second victim, who was at home and had also left her front door unlocked.
As he ducked inside her apartment, her dogs began barking. She walked out of her room and saw the man in her living room.
She asked, “What’s happening?” police said.
The suspect replied, “You’re pretty, I want to make you mine!”
That’s when he attacked her and slipped his hands in her shirt and fondled her.
When she tried to pull away from him, he pinned her to the couch, police said.
The woman’s dogs then tried to bite his leg. The woman was able to break free and push him out of her apartment.
The man was described as black, 25 to 30 years old with black hair and brown eye, 6 feet tall and 170 to 190 pounds. Along with the green shirt, the man was wearing blue jeans and white shoes.
Anyone with information about the man is urged to call LAPD’s Rampart Burglary detectives at (213) 484-3487 or (213) 484-3486. To remain anonymous call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS, text LAPD, then 274637 or visit “anonymous web tips” at LAPD Online.
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