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POLICE BRIEFS

Staff
Wednesday May 23, 2001

A UC Berkeley student was sexually assaulted by a man she had been walking with on the campus Friday morning between 1:30 and 2 a.m., University of California Police said Tuesday. 

The victim met the suspect earlier that evening at a nearby bar, police said. She walked onto the campus voluntarily with the suspect, but resisted when the suspect made sexual advances. 

The suspect then allegedly battered and sexually assaulted the victim before fleeing the campus. He was described as a white male between 24 and 26 years old, about 5 feet 10 inches and about 230 pounds. 

University of California Police Department Detective Bruce Bauer asks if anyone has information about the suspect to contact him at 642-3658. 

••• 

Berkeley police announced Tuesday that they are offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Merlin Antone’s killer. 

Antone, a 42-year-old Native-American man, was found battered and unresponsive on Oct. 22 at the corner of Adeline and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, according to police. He died of his injuries. 

Police said he was last seen alive near the Ashby BART station, reportedly in the company of a teenage boy, described as a dark-complected African American about 5 feet tall, wearing dark color clothes and carrying a portable black stereo “boom box.”  

The young person’s involvement with the crime has not been established, police say. 

The police investigation shows that on Oct. 22, between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., Antone took the Lake Merritt BART train to the Ashby BART Station, just prior to the assault. 

Lt. Russell Lopes of the Berkeley police said the reward has been offered because the homicide investigation has not been able to locate any suspects.  

Anyone with information is asked to contact Berkeley police at 981-5741. 

•••  

When a man and a woman went to a Berkeley residence near the intersection of Page and Seventh streets to collect some money owed to the woman Saturday the owner of the house and his two young sons attacked the couple, police said. 

Berkeley Police Lt. Russell Lopes said the owner of the house attempted to beat the woman when she asked for the money she was allegedly owed. The man accompanying the woman attempted to intervene, but the owner of the house allegedly struck him in the head with a metal pipe, Lopes said.  

The victim fell to the ground from the force of the blow, at which point the 11- and 12-year-old sons of the owner of the house allegedly joined in the attack, one kicking the victim in the head while the other slashing at him with a large kitchen knife, Lopes said. 

Police arrived on the scene to find the owner of the house had fled, Lopes said.  

The victim received bruises and lacerations as a result of the attack but was not seriously injured. 

Lopes said police are looking for the owner of the house, who could be charged with assault with a deadly weapon.  

The two minors allegedly involved in the attack will be referred to Berkeley Police juvenile services, he said.