Manuel Ortega. Ortega, 19, is charged with rape, robbery and kidnapping in connection with the assault of a 15-year-old girl following a Richmond High School homecoming dance. (AP Photo/Richmond Police Department)
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Updated: Wednesday, 28 Oct 2009, 10:29 AM MDT
Published : Wednesday, 28 Oct 2009, 8:41 AM MDT
RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) - Three more people have been arrested in connection with the gang rape and beating of a 15-year-old girl outside her high school homecoming dance in an attack that has generated widespread outrage.
A man and two boys were arrested late Tuesday, including 21-year-old Salvador Rodriguez of Richmond, Calif., and two teens, 16 and 17. They were each booked on one count of gang rape and likely face other charges including robbery and kidnapping.
"These are people who played a significant role in the incident," Richmond Police Lt. Mark Gagan said Wednesday. "I'm confident that more arrests will be made."
The arrests bring to five the number of people taken into custody in the attack that occurred Saturday night at Richmond High School, located in the San Francisco Bay area. The attacks and its aftermath have rattled Richmond, Calif., a crime-ridden city of about 120,000 in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Police believe as many as 10 people ranging in age from 15 to mid-20s attacked the girl for more than two hours at a dimly lit area near benches Saturday night. As many as two dozen people saw the rape without notifying police.
The victim, a sophomore, had left the dance and was drinking alcohol in a school courtyard with a group when she was attacked, police said.
Officers found the girl semiconscious and naked from the waist down near a picnic table. She remains hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.
Police also hope a $20,000 reward will bring more people forward with any information.
Gagan said the girl left the dance and was walking to meet her father for a ride home when a classmate invited her to join a group drinking in the courtyard. The girl had consumed a large amount of alcohol by the time the assault began, police said. Gagan said the girl's father tried to call her cell phone, but no one answered.
Police received a tip about a possible assault on campus from a young woman, a former student, who heard two males bragging about it.
The victim was found nearly an hour after the dance had ended.
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