Report: Sexual predator targeting Los Angeles girls since 1995

Monday December 16, 2002

LOS ANGELES (AP) A heavyset man wearing a knit cap has sexually assaulted 17 schoolgirls in a northeast city neighborhood since 1995, typically by grabbing students on their way to or from school and dragging them to a secluded location, according to a newspaper report.

The assaults began in April 1995 and most of them occurred near Marshall High School in the city's Los Feliz district, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

The victims range in age from 11 to 17. Three of the victims were raped, 13 were groped or fondled, and one was forced to perform oral sex, police said.

In the most recent attack, a 17-year-old high school senior was forced beneath a bridge and raped Nov. 21 as she walked to a gym before school.

``I thought I was already dead,'' the teenager told the Times. ``First thing I thought was, 'OK, this morning was the last morning I will see my mom.'''

The teenager's mother has complained that not enough has been done to catch the attacker.

``Are we waiting until somebody gets killed?'' the mother, who was not identified, told the newspaper.

Police have distributed fliers with sketches of the man, aged 35 to 50, who is described as heavy and unshaven.

In July 1997, more than two years after the assaults began, police determined from victims' descriptions of the attacker that a single perpetrator was responsible.

``We've had extra patrols, extra officers, in the areas for weeks at a time,'' said Detective Gregory Stone of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The pace of assaults has accelerated over the years, officials said.

Last year, there were eight attacks, including two on the same day. So far, there have been three assaults this year. The attacks have been reported at intervals of two months to more than a year, but all occurred in the same area.

The 17-year-old victim of the most recent attack received morning-after pills from a doctor to prevent becoming pregnant, but is worried about contracting a sexually transmitted disease.

``I don't think it will ever be over for me,'' she said. ``It might be less bad, but I don't think I will ever get over it.''

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)