Man arrested after attempted rape of UC Berkeley student
Police say Ahmad Lutfi, 34, lives in the apartment building near campus where the crimes took place.
Police have arrested a local man in connection with several serious sex crimes just north of the UC Berkeley campus over the weekend, authorities report.
Berkeley police say suspect Ahmad Lutfi, 34, lives in the apartment building, near Le Conte and Hearst avenues, where the crimes took place.
Officers were dispatched to the building at about 1 p.m. Saturday after a UC Berkeley student in her 20s said she had been sexually assaulted by a stranger in the communal laundry room.
Police subsequently found the suspect, identified as Lutfi, outside his apartment.
Ahmad Lutfi. BPD
He "had altered his appearance … by changing his clothing and shaving off his beard," police said. "In a nearby communal restroom, officers also found a shaver with hair clippings on the ground."
After searching Lutfi's apartment and collecting "additional evidence," officers arrested him on suspicion of assault with intent to commit rape, false imprisonment and sexual battery by restraint, according to booking records.
Lutfi, who has no prior criminal cases in Alameda County, is being held on $160,000 bail.
He is set for arraignment Wednesday at Wiley Manuel Courthouse in Oakland.
