Police Seek Help in Finding Rapist

Police issued a warning Tuesday and requested help from the public in tracking down a serial rapist who has attacked four women in the San Fernando Valley since late December.

“There is a significant manhunt” in progress, said Deputy Chief Martin Pomeroy, commanding officer of the LAPD Valley Bureau.

The man is a Latino between 25 and 30 years old, with black hair and brown eyes, about 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing about 150 pounds, Det. Emma Ramirez said. In at least one of the attacks he was armed with a semiautomatic handgun.

Ramirez said the rapist, described as having a pierced eyebrow with a small hoop through it, has been described by victims as very innocent appearing. “Everybody says he’s very clean cut,” she said.

The perpetrator is said to be driving a 1996 Dodge Neon with the license plate number 3PCR994, a vehicle that was rented but never returned to a company in Riverside.

He has targeted petite Latina women in their early 30s who were going to work in the early morning, Ramirez said, adding that in a fourth case he tried to assault a white woman but appeared to let her go when she turned around and he realized she was not Latina.

The first attack occurred about 7 a.m. on Dec. 22 near Zelzah Avenue and Nordhoff Street. Subsequent attacks occurred about 5 a.m. on Dec. 26 near Riverside Drive and Coldwater Canyon Avenue, and about 7:45 a.m. on Dec. 30 near Coldwater Canyon and Moorpark Street.

In two of the cases the man approached the women asking for directions and in one attack he stopped and offered to help a woman whose car had stalled, Ramirez said. He put the women in his car, raped them and released them at a different location.

“I would warn [women] the way I would warn my mother,” Ramirez said. “Be aware of your surroundings.”