Many watched two-hour gang rape at Richmond High homecoming but none reported it
By Karl Fischer
kfischer@bayareanewsgroup.com
Posted: 10/26/2009 07:41:59 AM PDT
Updated: 10/26/2009 08:12:17 PM PDT
How many watched while a throng of men viciously gang-raped a 15-year-old girl outside Richmond High’s homecoming dance?
Police wish they knew, and they said Monday that they plan to find out.
“The crimes perpetrated against this 15-year-old are both startling and horrific,” police Chief Chris Magnus said. “We are committed to arresting the perpetrators and to preparing the strongest case possible by aggressively pursuing every lead and utilizing the full resources of the department.”
Two days after Saturday night’s two-hour gang rape in a campus courtyard, Richmond police deployed carloads of detectives and school-resource officers to find any and all who took part.
The victim, a student, remained
hospitalized Monday with non-life-threatening injuries. Patrol officers broke up the open-air sex assault just before midnight, arresting 19-year-old Manuel Ortega as he ran from the crime scene, they say.
“She was raped, beaten, robbed and dehumanized by several suspects who were obviously OK enough with it to behave that way in each other’s presence,” said Lt. Mark Gagan, a patrol supervisor in the city’s Northern Policing District. “What makes it even more disturbing is the presence of others. People came by, saw what was happening, and failed to report it.”
Ortega remained at County Jail in Martinez on Monday, booked on suspicion of rape and robbery. Detectives believe as many as six other men also raped the girl as she lay semiconscious on a courtyard bench, also beating her, taking pictures and stealing her jewelry.
Nobody called police until word of the ongoing rape spread to a house party in the city’s North and East neighborhood, where an appalled partygoer felt obligated to phone in the rumor.
Officers broke it up, and found the victim semiconscious and obviously hurt. Paramedics flew her to a regional trauma center in critical condition; she stabilized overnight.
The Times does not name victims of sexual assault without their consent.
The girl attended the school’s homecoming dance, held in the gym from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday. About 400 students attended, with school security and four police officers both inside and watching the surrounding parking lot and street.
Police say she left alone about 9:30 p.m. and walked north on 23rd Street, expecting to catch a ride from her father. Instead, a schoolmate caught her attention from behind a cyclone fence on the north end of campus.
He invited her to join a group drinking and hanging out in a secluded courtyard behind the fence, Gagan said, and escorted her down Emeric Avenue to a short gate from which they made their way back to the group.
The girl drank a large amount of hard alcohol quickly and fell over. So began the assault.
Detectives spent the rest of the weekend trying to identify the various participants, some of whom arrived after the gang rape began.
The courtyard is pitch-black at night, Gagan said, making it difficult to see into it from 23rd.
“The gate to the football field was locked, and there were other gates closed on campus. This was a secluded place,” Gagan said. “While there were officers and school security on the campus, they were managing the activity in and around the gym, on the south side of the school.”