Student Fights Off Suspect In Violent Overnight Attack Near Chapman University Dorm: 'I Chased Him Back Up The Stairs, Cursing Him Out'
ORANGE (CBSLA) – Authorities have arrested a 22-year-old man on attempted sexual assault charges in connection with a violent attack on a Chapman University student near her dorm in the city of Orange last week.
Dalante Jerome Bell was booked on suspicion of assault with the intent to commit rape, said Sgt. Phil McMullin of the Orange Police Department.
Bell is not a Chapman student and has no affiliation with the university, McMullin said.
The attack occurred at 12:40 a.m. Friday in the area of Walnut Avenue and Grand Street, according to the Orange Police Department.
The suspect attacked the student while wearing a skeleton-style mask or gator, and black clothing, police said.
The victim was standing in a courtyard of Henley Hall making a phone call when the suspect jumped out of the bushes and attacked her, according to a bulletin that went out to the university community.
The victim described the incident to CBSLA Monday.
"He punches me in the face, I hit the trash can behind me, like a concrete trash can, he's just like beating me up," she said. "I don't know if I hit him off, or like pushed him off, or I don't know if he heard people coming. Sometime he got off and I chased him back up the stairs, cursing him out. By the time I had got up there people had heard it."
Police investigators released surveillance video showing the suspect after he removed his mask and sweatshirt.
Bell is not a Chapman student and has no affiliation with the university, McMullin said. The sergeant said media coverage of the attack prompted Bell's family to bring him in Monday night, and he was taken into custody about 11 p.m., McMullin said. He was being held on $500,000 bail.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
