Man Sought in Kidnapings, Sexual Attacks on Schoolgirls

A knife-wielding rapist who drives around South-Central and Southwest Los Angeles in an old Cadillac looking for schoolgirls walking to bus stops is being sought in attacks on four victims since May, police said Wednesday.

The most recent assault occurred Monday, said Lt. Alan Kerstein, commander of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southwest Division. He said a 13-year-old girl was walking alone before 8 a.m. when she was abducted and sexually assaulted.

Kerstein said that on Jan. 25, a man tried to pull a 12-year-old girl into his car but she broke free and ran. Later that day, the lieutenant said, the man kidnaped and sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl.

Kerstein said the man has been connected to a case of sexual battery on a 15-year-old last May.

“Same car. Same description. Same M.O.,” he said.

Based on victims’ descriptions, police prepared and circulated a composite drawing of a dark-complexioned black man, 25 to 40 years old, 5 feet, 3 inches to 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighing between 140 and 180 pounds.

At the time of the first assaults the rapist had a mustache, but investigators said the latest victim described her attacker as having a full beard. The rapist has scars over his right eye and at the corner of his mouth and drives a 1973 to 1977 two-door black Cadillac, possibly with spoke-type wheel covers, police said.

Kerstein warned girls in neighborhoods patrolled by the Southwest and 77th Street Divisions--where the attacks have occurred--to walk in pairs or groups or ride to the bus stop or to schools with their parents, if possible.

“We urge them, don’t talk to strangers,” Kerstein said.