Arrests San Francisco

An anonymous tip and a phone number on a pager led Los Angeles police to a man they suspect is the serial rapist who terrorized at least four women in the San Fernando Valley since Dec. 22. The arrest of 27-year-old Jose Zarate, who was found at a Comfort Inn motel on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco at 2:15 a.m. Thursday, has already prompted calls from more potential victims, police said Friday as they outlined Zarate's capture.

Hundreds of pounds of bomb-making materials and handbooks on how to build a bomb were found in a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. storage facility Thursday, and a field worker for the utility was arrested. The 44-year-old employee, Paul Madronich, was very cooperative and led investigators to more such materials at a second PG & E facility, said San Francisco police spokesman Sherman Ackerson.

A former Los Angeles sheriff's deputy who is wanted in a Yorba Linda murder and a string of robberies and who had vowed that he would never be taken alive was in custody Tuesday after a routine traffic stop near a San Francisco marina. Stephen Moreland Redd, 49, was featured on the television show "America's Most Wanted," and has been a fugitive since August.

An anonymous tip and a phone number on a pager led Los Angeles police to a man they suspect is the serial rapist who had terrorized at least four women in the San Fernando Valley since Dec. 22, authorities said Friday. The arrest of 27-year-old Jose Zarate, who was found at a Comfort Inn motel on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco at 2:15 a.m. Thursday, has already prompted calls from more potential victims, police said as they outlined Zarate's capture.

Police arrested 11 animal rights activists Friday after they blocked entrances to a department store to protest the sale of fur coats. A police spokesman said nine women and two men were seized after the protest in Union Square, home to some of the city's most exclusive stores. He said they would be charged with obstructing the sidewalk.

Four youths were in custody Wednesday in connection with a series of random robberies, kidnapings and murders so brutal that even veteran police officers were shocked, authorities said. "This is juvenile crime at its absolutely most violent . . . a rampage," said Inspector Mike Jeffries of the San Francisco Police Department. One of the boys, a 16-year-old, is the suspected shooter in the two murders.

Lights flashing, the U.S. Army patrol car was parked at an angle outside the base parachute shop. Two young MPs were huddled by the car radio. It was raining, and they wore ponchos over their camouflage uniforms. They also wore plastic gloves. A few feet away, a Chinese man dressed in a thin leather jacket, knock-off Levis and soggy sneakers stood motionless as rain ran down his face. He kept his eyes on the MPs and they kept their eyes on him. "You seen any more guys like this around?"

A freighter full of Chinese immigrants dumped its illegal cargo at a historic Army fort near the Golden Gate Bridge early Monday before being seized by the Coast Guard in a dramatic eight-hour chase across the open sea. Apparently attempting to slip into San Francisco, 169 refugees on the ship Pai Chang were instead arrested shortly after touching American soil. An unknown number of additional passengers fled on foot and were being sought Monday night.

A man with AIDS was forced off an American Airlines flight in Chicago and arrested after refusing to leave the plane, which airline officials said was not equipped to handle his medical needs, company officials and witnesses said. Timothy Holless, 33, of San Francisco, was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct and released on his own recognizance Sunday after he was taken off Flight 1185 to San Francisco, a Chicago Police Department spokeswoman said.

Medea Benjamin, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, complained frequently during the campaign that her candidacy has not received the attention it deserved. She finally got noticed Monday night, but maybe not in the way she intended. After disrupting a Democratic campaign rally featuring incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Gov. Gray Davis, she was kicked out of the auditorium and handcuffed by San Francisco police.