Los Angeles Police Department officials on Monday announced the arrest of a 46-year-old Uber driver from North Hollywood who they accuse of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman he picked up in downtown Los Angeles.
Police released photos of Alaric Spence, the suspect, and his car in the hopes that more possible victims will come forward, LAPD Captain William Hayes said during a news conference at police headquarters.
Spence allegedly picked up a 24-year-old Los Angeles woman in downtown L.A. early morning Friday and was “going to take her to Hollywood … the original destination,” Hayes said.
The woman recalled hailing the ride-share service, and later “fell asleep sometime during the transportation, and then awoke the next morning in a room in which she was not familiar,” Hayes said.
The sexual assault allegedly occurred Friday at or around 3 a.m. in a hotel on Lankershim Boulevard, LAPD officials said.
Hayes said “there is surveillance of the victim being carried into the hotel,” but he would not disclose the name of the establishment.
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Spence was driving a silver, 2015 four-door Nissan Sentra with the license plate 7XUX293. The car windshield has an Uber sticker. Anyone who believes they may have been a victim should contact LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division’s special assault section at (213) 486-6910, Hayes said.
“It doesn’t seem feasible that this would be the first time,” Hayes noted. “He actually carried the young lady into the hotel room and assaulted her … to do something that brazen” indicates he could have done this before, Hayes told reporters.
Investigators did not believe that Spence did anything “at this point” to make the woman unconscious, Hayes said.
The woman told police “she had gone to an event that evening and had been out drinking.”
In conversations with her, “there’s no belief from her” that she was drugged, Hayes said.
Spence told police he had been driving for Uber for six months, according to Hayes.
Hayes said Spence has a criminal record that includes five felony convictions for possession and sales of narcotics in various counties, including Los Angeles, Ventura and Sacramento.
Services like Uber are required to do background checks on drivers.
According to Hayes, “Uber has been extremely cooperative with us.”
Uber officials said Spence was screened according to state requirements that went into effect Jan. 1, under AB 1289. The company issued a statement saying “no person should ever have to experience the violent act that’s been reported to police.”
“We are working with the Los Angeles Police Department to fully support their investigation, and the driver has been banned from the Uber app,” the statement said.
Hayes said they anticipated filing the case with the District Attorney’s Office Monday afternoon.
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Councilman Paul Krekorian, who represents the North Hollywood area, said he has been urging the state to allow Los Angeles to require ride-hailing companies like Uber to conduct more thorough background checks.
The latest “horrible incident” is a “reminder of why it’s necessary to require all ride-hailing drivers to undergo fingerprint-based background checks,” he said. “People rely on these services that are inherently unreliable, and something needs to be done to protect the public before more innocent people get hurt.”
Last fall, Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 1289 into law, which requires more comprehensive checks than before. But the current law stops short of mandating fingerprinting, which is what the city Department of Transportation uses for taxi drivers.
This article has been updated from an earlier version to correctly state that Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 1289 into law last fall.
