Tulsa Police: Attackers Filming Sexual Assaults, Rapes Shockingly Common

<p>A TU student is in a Texas jail, accused of rape. Police say he made a run for the Mexican border before being captured in San Antonio.</p>

Monday, October 24th 2016, 10:28 pm

By: News On 6


A TU student is in a Texas jail, accused of rape. Police say he made a run for the Mexican border before being captured in San Antonio.

Investigators say they found a video on Luis Molina's cell phone of him raping a fellow student in an on-campus apartment, October 7th.

They say once the University suspended Molina and kicked him out of student housing, his father arrived from Mexico and they headed south.

10/24/2016 Related Story: Police Arrest Man Suspected Of Sexual Battery, Burglary At TU Campus

Police believe Molina is the same person who's gone into student apartments through unlocked doors six times since February to watch or touch women students in their sleep.

Student Dylan Wolle said, "God, it's awful. You'd never suspect somebody going to college, who has their life going for them, that they would do something like that; pretty crazy."

The university said it sent emails to students urging them to lock their doors and offers safety classes for incoming classes in the fall.

Police said all the victims are current or former athletes or their roommates.

The Tulsa Police sex crimes unit said it's becoming more common for attackers to film their own assaults or rapes on camera.

Detectives were able to find the victim in this rape, but, said that's not always the case.

According to the affidavit, the suspect, Molina, even showed the video he took to a classmate.

Tulsa police call it horrifying, and detectives say the fact that the rape of an unconscious victim was filmed is heinous.

Students who live in the apartment complex where it happened, Mayo Village, have trouble wrapping their heads around it.

Wolle said, "Why would someone? That's sick, that's very sick."

Sergeant Jillian Phippen works in the Tulsa Police Department's sex crimes unit and said in the age of camera phones, these types of videos are all too common - and most of them are crimes.

"Almost every phone that we get, unfortunately, has a video of some type of sexual act. Some are consensual and a lot are not," she said.

The affidavit for Molina's arrest says he showed part of the video he took to another classmate.

Detectives said that classmate pushed Molina and told him to delete it; but Tulsa police said he didn't - they found the video on Molina's phone while pursuing a search warrant.

Phippen said, "If you're out drinking, having fun, that's your own business, but when you become unconscious, no one has the right, obviously, to do anything to your body. To do that and record it and kept it, it was horrifying."

The challenge, Phippen said, is identifying the victim and then telling them what happened.

"Do you want to watch this and see what happened or just have us tell you about it? Some victims watch it and are okay with that, to watch it. Some are not okay with watching it, and that's absolutely fine," she said.

In this case, detectives said the victim did not want to see the video.

We asked TU if there are any plans to make changes to security on campus, a spokesperson said she's not aware of any changes.

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