Outrage over gang rape of 15-year-old girl; more arrests made overnight
Outrage grew in a Bay Area town over the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl as police made more arrests overnight.
National attention has been focused in Richmond over what police described as a gang rape of a 15-year-old student who struggled with attackers -- some of whom took photos and laughed -- as more than a dozen witnesses passed by and did nothing. Police said last night that as many as 20 people saw the attack, and some might have shot video on their cellphones.
"We are outraged that this happened," Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin told reporters Tuesday.
Overnight, Richmond police served search warrants at the homes of several suspects and arrested three people, bringing the total number of suspects in custody to five.
Two people -- a 19-year-old former Richmond High student and a 15-year-old student at the school -- were arrested Saturday and Monday in connection with the assault, which began about 9:30 p.m.
The suspects allegedly described how some of the attackers laughed and took photos of the girl with cellphone cameras as she was being raped, said Det. Ken Greco of the Richmond Police Department.
"It was a pretty brutal scene," he said.
"We're getting more information about who was there and who played what role," said Lt. Mark Gagan. "The physical evidence is pretty supportive of the direction we're going."
He declined to elaborate on the evidence, citing the ongoing investigation.
Police were alerted after a female student overheard people talking about a rape. She called 911 and told dispatchers what she had heard, Gagan said.
Police said the victim was still being assaulted when officers arrived on the scene. The suspects fled as officers found the girl lying in the alley. She was unconscious and naked from the waist up, Gagan said.
The former Richmond High student, Manuel Ortega, 19, was arrested a few blocks away Saturday night and booked on charges of rape, robbery and kidnapping, police said. The 15-year-old was booked on suspicion of felony sexual assault.
Gagan said that alcohol had been consumed at the scene but that toxicology tests were pending.
-- Robert J. Lopez
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EDITOR'S PICKS:
Thank you to the one female who was not there during the rape, but overheard the rumor, and reported it. She sets the example in stopping sexual violence. One brave young
girl!
Posted by: Cancan | October 28, 2009 at 08:06 AM
This, sadly does not surprise me at all. It sickens me, but it doesn't surprise me.
Posted by: Windy City | October 28, 2009 at 08:22 AM
I hope those low life's get what they deserve. I am so sick and tired of innocent children getting hurt. Why didn't someone HELP? Where was the chaperones for the party? Why wasn't an adult outside? It's time for street justice!
Posted by: G. I. | October 28, 2009 at 08:28 AM
Kill em all! The filthy little bastards watching and participating should be exterminated!
Posted by: SG | October 28, 2009 at 08:33 AM
Wow! How can people do this, and think it's ok?! This gets me mad!! poor girl! I'll be praying for you! =) hope those boys get what they deserve.
Posted by: Emily | October 28, 2009 at 08:39 AM
Whose sons are these? I want to meet their mothers. I cannot understand how our culture has come to this! These males are like a pack rabid dogs. Give me a gun!
Posted by: jodie | October 28, 2009 at 09:06 AM
These guys will get what they deserve, a hefty prison sentence, then learn that rapists are no better than child molesters in the other inmates eyes. They will learn what it's like to be victimized with no escape, no place to run. This is the way it is, sex offenders are not treated fairly or with any dignity for the remainder of their sad pathetic lives and if they survive prison, they will never have a job, an apartment, children and a family or be allowed to live anywhere within the City Limits, except under the bridge, homeless with nothing but their dirty clothes and shopping basket. Our prayers go to the victim and the families.
Posted by: Juan Diego from Socal | October 28, 2009 at 09:08 AM
So did the dad come to pick her up and just leave when she didn't show? Because I know my dad would've come inside looking for me...and then he would've been pissed that I made him drive all the way to school and made him wait in the parking lot. So what did her dad do????
Posted by: Nikki | October 28, 2009 at 09:18 AM
Where was the father that was supposed to pick her up?? Something here is not right.
Posted by: Melissa | October 28, 2009 at 09:25 AM
These boys who beat and gang-raped this child are evil rapists pedophiles. They will only get worse as they get older. They should also be beaten half to death, and thrown into a den of pitbulls for 2 hours then drag their asses accross town. No mercy. By the way it is a felony to give alcohol to a child. It is a felony to abuse, molest and rape a child. It is a felony to have photos of child rape and child porn. They should all be hauled off to jail.
Posted by: Summer | October 28, 2009 at 09:54 AM
wondering how many "undocumented" immigrants participated this crime. in arizona most rapes commited by illegals.
Posted by: reader | October 28, 2009 at 10:02 AM
"This, sadly does not surprise me at all. It sickens me, but it doesn't surprise me."
-Windy City
That's exactly how I feel. And I'm a bit saddened that it doesn't surprise me.
Posted by: Joseph | October 28, 2009 at 10:10 AM
Unfortunately, the courts have a tendancy to go easy on underaged offenders. Personally, I think they should all be sent to prison as fodder for any Bubba that wants them. If the courts can't do that, then they should neuter these losers so no one else's child has to suffer.
Posted by: Astonished | October 28, 2009 at 10:13 AM
Public floggings and death penalties are needed for these kinds of perverts. Send them all to Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: NYC | October 28, 2009 at 10:25 AM
This is a disgraceful commentary on the state of some of the youth of this country. Okay, we can ask where was her dad... But I think we should really ask, "How did the parents of the assailants raise these kids?" and I'm using the term "raise" loosely. I hope justice is served here, that the boys who did this and the ones who watched are punished more than by the criminal justice system but by their hearts as well...although it appears they don't have one to allow such a brutal attack to continue for so long -- but beyond that, I hope the US as a whole raises up and says NO MORE, that kids & adults report crimes and intervene when possible. I couldn't live with myself if I allowed something like this to happen and I hope we can instill that in the general population. This is embarrassing.
Posted by: Megan | October 28, 2009 at 10:26 AM
Manuel, meet our friend Bubba.
Posted by: Fred | October 28, 2009 at 10:34 AM
Insert glass rod into the urethra of each of the boys and SNAP!
Then lower them into a tub of starving piranha.
Posted by: jc | October 28, 2009 at 10:36 AM
Happy now? "Stop snitching" is part of hiphop culture = of of the facets of multiculturalism we're all supposed to embrace, for not to would be "racist."
Posted by: Let me guess the names | October 28, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Justice would be shooting these animals in the head. The "adults" involved should be killed no question.
Posted by: Jon | October 28, 2009 at 11:09 AM
From what I have read, she was on her way to call her father, so he wasn't on his way or waiting already.
It is disgusting that todays youth condone harming a child and watching. All who were there should be arrested and tried as adults.
That poor child has a long road ahead of her, we are sending our prayers to her and her family
Posted by: Jackie | October 28, 2009 at 11:14 AM
The lowlife TRASH who gang raped this poor girl (as well as the maggots who watched and laughed!) deserve to be tortured endlessly! Only a soulless monster could do such a thing. I hope all the criminals are sentenced to life in prison without the possibiliity of parole and raped everyday by a cellmate named Bubba.
Posted by: starship | October 28, 2009 at 11:31 AM
There is a lot of missing information from this article. I watched CNN and during the interview with a Lieutenant of the police department it was said that she walked to another place on the campus and jumped a fence to get to a dark secluded alley way where all this happened, apparently there was alcohol involved as well. I am in no way saying that it was the victim's fault that this horrible thing occured to her - I am just saying that there is a significant amount of information that is missing and it is difficult to understand exactly what happened based on this article. I have a 16 year old daughter who attends school dances. Depending on the school they may allow teens to walk in and out of the dance, leave the dance early, etc. It is possible that she left the dance early and her father went when the dance actually ended. What I wonder about the most - is that there were spectators as well as assailants...the spectators had to jump that fence to get to the area where this girl was being raped and beaten...then they had to jump the fence again to return to thier friends who they told about the assault - what happens to those individuals who went to witness then stood by and allowed it to happen without protest...I can understand being afraid for your own safety, but as soon as they were away from the scene why didn't they notify an adult? something shoud happen to them as well as the assailants.
Posted by: anonymous | October 28, 2009 at 11:36 AM
so let me get this straight...Other witness took video with their phones but didn't use those same phones to push 3 little numbers???? WTF?? And out of all those witnesses NO ONE CALLED FOR HELP??? Ok I get it, you don't want to intervene and possibly get hurt, BUT YOU CAN'T CALL 911?!?! Why did the information have to get passed around before someone called 911???? I just don't get it
Posted by: outraged | October 28, 2009 at 11:50 AM
This is a horrible story and is totally aberrant re "today's youth".
It's shocking, and apparently fodder for cynics everywhere. It's sad that media sensationalism has such primacy online.
Tragic. Just tragic.
Posted by: Ray Bus | October 28, 2009 at 11:59 AM
I just cant wait to hear from the parents of these little momsters who may be convicted of this, lil johnny is not to blame, hje did nothing any one esle did not do, and just wiat till the blame is put upon the victim when the trials come before a judge or jury, least we forget the privacy and rights of the juvenile offenders here huh? and oh nor should we forget the people who raised the witnesses who said nor did nothing as this was happening, so far as I am concerned?
The state can come in and take over this school district and the PD for this having happened under their very noses.
Heck? Even the cities charter can be disolved as well?
A home coming event that truns in to something like this?
ANIMALS ALL!
Posted by: pitbullstew | October 28, 2009 at 12:12 PM