Westside Rapist Caught

By Anne La Jeunesse

Tuesday, April 13 -- A man whose violent rapes and sexual assaults committed during nighttime break-ins of his victims' homes blanketed the Westside in a veil of terror since October was caught Monday evening somewhere in Los Angeles Police Department's Pacific Division, police said.

Jelani Efron King, 20, of Los Angeles, was arrested at 7 p.m. in Pacific Division's coverage area, which includes Venice, where two of the seven rapes attributed to him took place, said Officer Jason Lee, an LAPD spokesman.

"We're not going to say where he was physically taken into custody because the case is still under investigation," Lee said.

King is suspected of waging a one-man crime spree that began in October in the Westwood area and then moved into Santa Monica with the Dec. 21 rape of a woman there. Subsequent rapes and violent sexual assaults occurred in Venice on Feb. 11 and 23, another in Santa Monica on March 18 and three in Palms - on Feb. 19, March 26 and April 5.

"Physical evidence, including DNA evidence tie the suspect to six of the seven sexual assaults at this time," Lee said, adding that King is also suspected of the seventh rape.

King's arrest by members of the state Department of Justice Sexual Predator Team, known as SPAT, was conducted at the direction of detectives from LAPD's Robbery/Homicide Rape Special Section, Lee said.

King's arrest came as a result of more than 400 clues gathered by detectives on LAPD's Robbery/Homicide Bureau and a multi-agency task force that also included investigators from Santa Monica, the state Department of Justice and University of California - Los Angeles campus police.

"Today's a good day for everyone, it's a good day for the victims, it's a good day for the communities of Los Angeles and Santa Monica," Santa Monica Police Chief James T. Butts Jr. said. "It's attributable to hard work, cooperation and the efforts of hundreds of police officers from Santa Monica, Los Angeles Police Department, and UCLA police and the Department of Justice."

Butts said that despite the man suspected of the rapes having been arrested, everyone must strive to maintain a high level of personal safety, but can be assured that law enforcement officers are always working to protect them.

King is being held in lieu of $700,000 on a charge of rape, but other charges will be added as the investigation continues, Lee said.

The case against King is expected to be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office on Wednesday.

During the course of the investigation, Lee said, it was once thought that there may have been two suspects committing sexual assaults, burglaries, physical assaults and prowling incidents, but it is now believed that King was responsible for all of the crimes, which are being sorted out by detectives, Lee said.

No photograph of King is being released by police, but Lee said he closely resembles a composite released March 26 after a woman was raped in Palms.