A man was charged Wednesday with assaulting five women in less than an hour at UCLA last week, officials said.
Olumuyiwa Akindahunsi, 29, is accused of sexually assaulting two women and trying to sexually assault a third at UCLA’s Westwood campus, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Two other women were physically assaulted.
The assaults occurred between 11:30 p.m. Thursday and shortly after midnight, the prosecutor’s office said.
Akindahunsi was found with zip ties, duct tape and a paracord when authorities took him into custody, the school’s police department said in a statement last week.
Four of the women are students, the prosecutor’s office said Wednesday.
The school police department described Akindahunsi as homeless. The district attorney’s office said he isn’t a student and didn’t have permission to be on campus.
“Our university campuses need to be safe and protected spaces for our students, faculty, staff and community — and we will do everything in our power to ensure that this happens,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in the release.
Akindahunsi was charged with one count of attempted kidnapping to commit a forcible rape, three counts of assault with the attempt to commit a forcible rape during the commission of a first-degree burglary, and two felony counts of assault likely to produce great bodily injury, according to the release.
Court records didn’t list an attorney for Akindahunsi. Jail records show he’s being held without bail.
The first alleged assault was reported on the main pedestrian walkway on campus. A student said a man approached her from behind and used force to steal her cellphone before he fled, campus police said.
Minutes later, the district attorney’s office said, a man allegedly followed two women into their dorm and sexually assaulted one of them. The other woman was physically assaulted, the prosecutor’s office said.
Akindahunsi then entered another dorm building and allegedly sought to kidnap a woman in a hallway to sexually assault her, the district attorney’s office alleged. The woman broke free, and the man fled.
Akindahunsi is accused of sexually assaulting a fifth woman in the hallway of her dorm before a nearby resident intervened and he fled, the district attorney’s office said.
University police officers found Akindahunsi near a campus parking structure, the department said. Police said multiple accusers and witnesses identified him as the suspect.
