A USC graduate student who has used drugs to rape and assault multiple women is accused of being a serial sexual predator and authorities are looking for additional victims, Los Angeles Police Department officials announced Wednesday.
Sizhe Weng, 33, is being held without bail after being arrested and charged with eight felony counts involving drug-facilitated sexual assaults of young women he came into contact with since beginning his graduate studies at the University of Southern California in 2021.
LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said at a press conference that the department began investigating Weng in January after German authorities reached out pertaining a similar investigation in Europe involving a Chinese national who they learned was a student living in Los Angeles for several years. Eventually, the information developed among LAPD and German authorities led to detectives searching a search warrant at Weng’s home in South L.A. near the USC campus, Hamilton said.
Hamilton said detectives arrested Weng on Aug. 28 for rape of an intoxicated person, and searched his home.
On Sept. 2, Weng was charged with eight felony counts of rape, sodomy, sexual penetration involving drugs and anesthesia, Hamilton said. Weng pleaded not guilty.
Hamilton, who oversees LAPD’s detectives, said they strongly suspect there are other victims and are encouraging them to come forward.
“If you have had any kind of contact with this individual, if you are linked to him through any other ways or any other means, our Robbery Homicide detectives would like to interview you regarding his actions,” Hamilton said.
Those alleged victims could be in L.A. and beyond, he said. “As soon as we became aware of actionable information, we opened an investigation,” Hamilton said. “It took us a while to catch up to all the activities this individual has been involved in LA.”
Hamilton said he would not specify the drugs involved, but essentially, it rendered the consumer physically unable and, in real terms, was similar to the date rape drug commonly called a roofie.
While Weng had a student visa in California since 2021, Hamilton said the department cannot be sure he was not in the area before then and so has not ruled out incidents in earlier years.
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