DEPUTIES ARREST 2, SEEK 3RD SUSPECT.

Byline: Daily News

LANCASTER - Sheriff's deputies surrounded an apartment Tuesday where they believed a rape suspect was hiding in an attic crawl-space, refusing to come out.

In the same apartment at 16th Street West and Avenue K-2, deputies arrested two other men, ages 20 and 21, on warrants charging them with an Antelope Valley slaying.

Deputies said a woman reported Monday that she had been raped two days earlier by an acquaintance. The woman called deputies Tuesday to say she saw the man in the apartment complex.

When deputies arrived, the man saw them and ran into a second-floor apartment. When deputies knocked on the door, it was answered by a man later identified as wanted on a murder warrant. The second murder suspect was inside.

Deputies said none of the three men lived in the apartment but were visiting there. Deputies did not immediately disclose details of the murder for which the other two men were arrested.

Deputies evacuated neighbors of the unit in which the rape suspect was believed to be hiding. They said they feared he might have a gun.

Deputies were waiting for a judge to sign a warrant giving them authority to go into the crawl-space.

Sheriff's special-weapons team deputies were flown in by helicopter, and deputies also had a police dog standing by.