19-Year-Old Man Arrested After Allegedly Slashing People In LA In The Face From His Bike

For at least two weeks, a man on a bicycle has been terrorizing residents of South Los Angeles and the surrounding neighborhoods, riding past pedestrians with a weapon and slashing people's faces.

The Los Angeles Police Department arrested a 19-year-old parolee in connection with the attacks, they announced Wednesday evening. He was recognized by his parole officer, said LAPD Detective Steve Garcia in a news conference.

"I'm very excited that we got this monster off the street," he said. "I'm sure this is the guy. I'll go 100% on that."

Photo of the suspect via LAPD

The suspect is accused of at least eight attacks, all of which appear to have been random. The first that police were aware of in South L.A. took place on March 20 at 7:30 a.m., when he allegedly rode a black and green mountain bike past a man standing on the corner of 59th Street and Avalon Boulevard and assaulted him with "an unknown type edged weapon" from his bike.

The attack caused severe injuries.

At first, said Mike Lopez, a media relations representative for LAPD, law enforcement "thought it was an isolated incident." But since the March 20 instance, LAPD became aware of three other South L.A. residents who have been victimized. A man was attacked the morning of March 27, and two more individuals -- a man and a woman -- were attacked the morning of April 1.

In addition, at least four other people were been attacked in neighboring areas. Lopez says that LAPD believed all the while that the incidents involved the same suspect.

"From what we are finding out," he says, the suspect in all the attacks is "using that distinct bicycle."

UPDATES:

6:30 p.m.: This article was updated with information about the suspect.

4:24 p.m.: This article was updated to reflect that LAPD detained a suspect.

This article was originally published on Apr. 3 at 2:45 p.m.