Monday, April 5 -- Inglewood Police Department investigators have contacted Santa Monica detectives in their quest to determine if a man fatally shot by police early Friday in Inglewood could be the same man suspected of having raped six women on the Westside, two of them in Santa Monica.

"They have talked with us, but so far there has been no con-nection made," said Santa Monica Police Lt. Gary Gallinot.

Inglewood investigators are expected to make an announcement Tuesday regarding the man shot by police around 3:45 a.m. Friday after he allegedly raped a woman and waved a knife at officers while threatening to kill them.

Los Angeles Coroner's Department officials say that the man has been identified but that his identity is not yet being released pending notification of relatives.

Questions about a possible connection in the cases arose after a woman was brutally raped at knife point near her Inglewood home by a man who may resemble the Westside Rapist, according to investigators.

Witnesses called police after they heard screams and saw a man pulling a woman in the 900 block of Inglewood Avenue, according to Lt. Eve Irvine.

Police found the woman, who told them that she had just arrived home when a man broke into her house and held her at the point of a knife he had grabbed from her kitchen, according to a report released by Irvine.

The man ransacked the woman's home, then attempted to rape her, when she escaped and ran from the house to a nearby gas station, Irvine said.

The man caught up with her at the gas station and raped her before fleeing, Irvine said.

Police found a man matching the description of the woman's attacker cowering in a carport, still wielding the knife. When officers ordered him to drop the weapon, the man said, "I'm going to kill you," and advanced towards them with an eight-inch steel knife, at which time he was fatally shot by officers who feared for their own safety, according to police.

The rape victim was taken to a local hospital where she was treated for injuries, including wounds believed to be from the knife or sustained in her struggle to defend herself, according to Irvine's report.

A Los Angeles Coroner's Department spokesman said late Saturday that the man killed by police has been identified, but his name is not being released pending notification of relatives.

Since the attacks attributed to the Westside Rapist, Santa Monica and Los Angeles police have been searching for a rape suspect described as African-American, 17 to 25 years old, and about 5 feet, 10 inches to 6 feet tall with short hair and no facial hair.

Attacks occurred in Santa Monica on Dec. 21 and March 18, in Venice on Feb. 11 and 23 and in Palms on Feb. 19 and March 26.

The police departments of Los Angeles and Santa Monica and UCLA campus police have been working closely to solve the attacks, and a $25,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the suspect has been offered by the city of Los Angeles.