Man, 27, Is Caught on Camera Kidnapping 14-Year-Old Girl in Los Angeles Before Sexually Assaulting Her
Joseph Michalitsianos, Daily Mail, October 12, 2022
The horrifying moment a Los Angeles man threatened a 14-year-old girl with a weapon before forcing her into a bathroom and sexually assaulting her was captured on camera.
Edward William Banks, 27, was arrested on Tuesday night hours after the incident and is currently being held on a $1 million bail.
Edward William Banks
He is charged with suspicion of aggravated kidnapping to commit rape.
The footage shows Banks with his arm draped around the unidentified teen while walking down a street in Los Angeles.
He then allegedly forced the victim into a bathroom by threatening her with a weapon and sexually assaulted her, before fleeing in an unknown direction.
This disturbing video shows this sexual assault suspect hold a weapon to a 14 y/o girl, wrapping his arms around her and allegedly forcing her into a restroom to assault her.
Our officers worked to track the suspect down and arrested him for aggravated kidnapping to commit rape. pic.twitter.com/ezvdrcimpB
— Los Angeles Police Protective League (@LAPPL) October 13, 2022
The disturbing case comes as crime rises around the nation, including California.
The city recorded a 21 percent rise in aggravated assaults and a 22 percent rise in robberies when compared to last year.
Despite the tangible uptick in crime, Los Angeles mysteriously failed to report its crime data to the FBI.
In 2020, the FBI announced a complete overhaul of its crime data collection system in order to improve the statistics about crime in the US.
However, about 9,700 police agencies had initially failed to submit their crime reports to the correct system by the March 14 deadline, with New York and Los Angeles failing to submit any data all together.
Both cities have contended with more than 300 murders so far this year, with overall violent crime running rampant.
Analysts from the Brennan Center for Justice said the missing data has left the current image of crime in America muddied.
‘With so many agencies failing to report a full year of data for 2021, this year’s annual crime data release will have significant blind spots,’ the center said in a statement.
