Series of Attacks Leads Police to Issue Warning

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  A series of incidents in which women have been kidnaped, robbed and raped at gunpoint by the same man has prompted police to warn residents to be “extra-cautious . . . especially at night.”

The assailant first struck in November and has attacked twice within the last week, Capt. Ed McErlain said. In the two most recent incidents, the victims were raped as well as robbed.

“We are not only looking for the community’s help in finding the suspect but are advising everyone to be particularly cautious,” McErlain said. “This man has displayed a handgun in each of the three incidents.”

In the latest assault, two women were confronted at 5 a.m. Sunday as they chatted in a parked car in the 7000 block of Glencoe Street, McErlain said. The assailant pointed a small, semiautomatic handgun at them and demanded that they drive to an automated teller machine and withdraw $300.

After the victims told him they did not have an ATM card, he ordered them to drive to a parking lot at Huntington Beach Mall. There, he locked one of the women, a 20-year-old from Huntington Beach, in the trunk and then raped her companion, a 21-year-old Mission Viejo woman.

After the assault, the man released the woman from the trunk and ordered the two to drive him back to Glencoe Street. He fled after stealing a purse belonging to one of the women, McErlain said.

The two other incidents occurred on the west side of the city, McErlain said. About 10 p.m. on Dec. 8, a 35-year-old woman was accosted by a gunman as she walked from her car to her apartment in the 16000 block of Sell Circle.

The man forced the woman back into her car, took her purse and ordered her to drive him to the Bank of America at Springdale Street and Edinger Avenue in Huntington Beach. After ordering her to withdraw $300, he had her drive to an unlit parking lot, where he raped her, McErlain said.

After the assault, he ordered her to drive back to her street, where he left her in her car.

McErlain said that while no sexual assault occurred in the first incident, on Nov. 21, other details of the crime are similar enough for police to assume that it was the same man. About 1 a.m., a couple parked in the 16000 block of Dolores Street were confronted by a gunman.

He told the couple--a 30-year-old man from Huntington Beach and a 21-year-old Cerritos woman--to drive him to a bank and withdraw $300. Afterward, he had them return him to Dolores Street, where he fled, McErlain said.

“All citizens, particularly women, should be alert, particularly at night when traveling alone and parking their cars,” McErlain said.

The suspect was described as a black male, 25 to 30 years old, weighing 185 to 200 pounds, cleanshaven with short hair.

Anyone with information is asked to call Huntington Beach police at (714) 375-5066.