Kidnaping and Robbery Suspect Tied to USC Rapes

A man suspected of attacking three women students at USC in the last two months was arrested Thursday after a kidnaping and robbery in North Hollywood, police said Tuesday.

The three attacks police attribute to Deon Proby, 18, among seven reported this year on the campus, caused widespread fear among students and prompted a controversial tightening of security on the 150-acre campus.

University officials said they will keep extra security guards on duty and warned students to remain cautious even after word of the arrest reached campus Tuesday, because the last reported rape there occurred on Friday and was not related to the previous attacks.

Proby, 18, was arraigned Monday in San Fernando Superior Court on two counts of kidnaping with the purpose of robbery, two counts of robbery and two counts of kidnaping in connection with the abduction of two women Nov. 23 in North Hollywood. He is also being investigated for similar incidents in the North Hollywood area since September, as well as the USC attacks, according to Los Angeles Police Detective Gary Barthelmess.

$250,000 Bail

Proby, who was released from a juvenile probation camp in August, was being held in lieu of $250,000 bail at the county jail. Police would not say why he was sent to probation camp.

The incident that led to Proby’s arrest occurred when two women were confronted in front of their house by a man who forced them to drive several blocks away. He robbed them and fled in their car, police said.

A short time later police tried to stop Proby near Arlington Avenue and Rodeo Road, about 2 miles west of the USC campus, Barthelmess said. He was apprehended after a short chase.

“He fits the description of three of the USC attacks and the method of operation was similar,” Barthelmess said.

Proby is being investigated for attacks on USC students on Oct. 29, Nov. 5 and Nov. 9. In the first incident, a student was kidnaped at gunpoint in an underground garage, taken to another location and sexually assaulted. In the second, a student was abducted from another underground garage and later raped. The third student was not sexually assaulted. A gunman took her money and her car, fleeing when passers-by came along.

2 Earlier Arrests

Two other rapes on campus were “date situations,” where the assailants were known by the women, police said. Two individuals were arrested in those cases. Another rape occurred at 8th and Hope Street, near the USC’s Embassy Residential apartments.

The most recent reported rape occurred at 3:20 p.m. Friday in Pardee Tower, an on-campus, co-ed dormitory. The victim answered a knock on the door, and when she opened it, a gun-toting man forced his way into the apartment and raped her.

In light of that attack, the mood on campus is “very nervous, very anxious,” said Dave Simon, Student Senate vice president and a third-year law student.

“It’s scary,” said Polly Morgan, 18, a freshman who lives in an apartment next to where one of the victims was kidnaped. “I like to jog and now I can’t do it unless I can fit it in during the day. And I never go out alone anymore.”

Another woman, a 20-year-old junior accounting student, said she has changed her route for night classes, parking at the edge of campus where she can catch a campus shuttle instead of parking near her class in an underground garage. “My family is very worried about me. And I have been scared, too,” she said.

Initially students complained that security reacted too slow to the attacks, Simon said.

But the campus has increased its security staff a third by having its 80 guards work 12-hour shifts, campus Police Chief Stephen Ward said. A private firm has also been hired to provide 20 additional guards. The Residential Life Department issued 5,000 warning whistles to students.

More students have used an escort service that runs until 2 a.m. and a tram system that transports students around campus.

Simon said he has received several complaints from black male students that they have been stopped and searched on campus. Those students were asked for student ID, while white students were not.

Leslie Patton, 26, a senior cinema and television major, said Tuesday that a meeting is planned by the Black Student Union to discuss the issue. “We’ve been watched suspiciously by both students and security. We all feel like a suspects,” Patton said. “We know they have to look for suspects, but we feel the issue requires more sensitivity.”

James M. Dennis, USC’s vice president for student affairs, sent parents of students living on or near campus letters outlining safety precautions being taken. “We emphasized that normally we have a very diverse and comprehensive security system and they have been particularly vigilant in light of recent incidents.”