Neighbors will need some time to get over the sight of sheriff's deputies combing their Los Angeles-area neighborhood looking for a suspected rapist.
He was caught following a dramatic, five-hour search through a residential neighborhood in Arcadia Wednesday. Neighbors were advised to stay in or kept from returning to their homes while authorities searched for the man accused of kidnapping and repeatedly raping a 25-year-old woman.
"I'm glad they kept me out of the neighborhood because I really wanted to come home," Jamie Pedrini said. Her fence was wrecked during the chase, she says by the man being pursued by police.
That man, arrested in connection with the sexual assault Wednesday night, was identified as 29-year-old Philippe Lutete. He was out of jail on bond on charges he committed sexual battery and false imprisonment of a hostage to avoid arrest in November 2014, according to jail records and court documents.
On Wednesday, Lutete allegedly snatched a woman from an Arcadia street early Wednesday morning and took her to his home where he repeatedly sexually assaulted her, Los Angeles County Sheriff's officials said.
She managed to break free and spoke with a neighbor before Lutete dragged her back into his home, but the neighbor called 911.
Neighbors "hunkered down," one said, while authorities searched door-to-door for Lutete, who had slipped out of the side of the house. He apparently went through the backyards of neighbors including Pedrini's, before being caught in the 2800 block of Mayflower Avenue.
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"It looks like he was trying to get away," Pedrini said.
The woman Lutete allegedly kidnapped and raped was doing OK after being taken to a hospital, police said.
