{"id":34504,"date":"2026-08-09T12:25:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T07:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34504"},"modified":"2026-08-09T12:25:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T07:25:42","slug":"she-was-sexually-assaulted-walking-home-from-the-gym-police-say-theyve-caught-her-attacker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34504","title":{"rendered":"She was sexually assaulted walking home from the gym. Police say they&#8217;ve caught her attacker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/6928146\/2147483647\/strip\/false\/crop\/240x303+0+0\/resize\/240x303!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F23%2F9e%2F173378f8427d8edeb673c4375178%2Fla-me-police-looking-for-more-victims-after-man-allegedly-sexually-assaults-person-in-north-hollywood-nr26152a.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div data-element=\"story-body\" data-subscriber-content=\"\">\n<p>A man has been arrested in the  sexual assault of a woman in North Hollywood walking home from the gym, and police are looking for more possible victims, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>On July 19 around 8:30 p.m., the woman  was walking home from the gym on the bridge at Laurel Grove Avenue and Valleyheart Drive when a man approached her from behind, grabbed her by the hair and pulled her to the ground, according to a Los Angeles Police Department news release. <\/p>\n<p>The man  sexually assaulted her with a foreign object, according to the LAPD. Witnesses interrupted the  assault and he fled. <\/p>\n<p>North Hollywood canvassed around 50 businesses to try to find surveillance footage and investigative leads, police said. Authorities released a community alert flier on July 29 and got multiple tips that led to identifying the suspect, 27-year-old Rodrigo Melgar, on Friday. <\/p>\n<p>On Monday around 10 a.m., the LAPD served a search warrant and arrested Melgar on Burbank Boulevard west of Topanga Canyon Boulevard, according to LAPD. He was booked on suspicion of sexual penetration with a foreign object. <\/p>\n<p>Detectives with the LAPD believe there could be more victims or witnesses. Melgar allegedly used public transit on local bus routes as his primary means of transportation. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis arrest is the result of outstanding detective work, relentless determination, and the strong partnership between our investigators, the media, and the community,\u201d LAPD Lt. Monique Valenzuela said in a prepared statement. \u201cOur detectives never stopped pursuing every lead, and every tip we received brought us one step closer to identifying and apprehending this violent offender.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A man has been arrested in the sexual assault of a woman in North Hollywood walking home from the gym, and police are looking for more possible victims, officials said. On July 19 around 8:30 p.m., the woman was walking home from the gym on the bridge at Laurel Grove Avenue and Valleyheart Drive when&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/73d2542\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/240x126+0+89\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F23%2F9e%2F173378f8427d8edeb673c4375178%2Fla-me-police-looking-for-more-victims-after-man-allegedly-sexually-assaults-person-in-north-hollywood-nr26152a.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}