Lake Forest Man Charged In Hate Crime, Kidnapping Of Asian Woman

LAKE FOREST, CA —A Lake Forest man was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping a young Asian woman with the intent of committing sexual assault in front of her apartment complex, Irvine Police say.

Michael Sangbong Rhee, 37, was arrested by Irvine police from his Lake Forest home later that same day for the crime. He is being held on 1 million dollars bail and is currently in Orange County Jail awaiting his court appearance.

According to officials, a young Asian woman was parked in front of her Irvine apartment midday on Friday. At approximately 1:30 p.m., Rhee appeared at her driver's side window armed with what looked like a gun, according to the victim's report.

At first, the victim assumed she was being robbed, but instead he pushed her into the backseat and attempted to sexually assault her, according to police.

Police say the woman fought back, yelling and screaming in her struggle with Rhee. A maintenance worker came to her aid, according to reports and Rhee ran through the apartment community to escape.

Irvine Police used surveillance footage to capture his license plate as he fled the scene, officials say. He was arrested later at his home in Lake Forest.

No gun was found at his residence or in his car, though a small BB gun weapon was found in his possession.

Rhee told investigators, in statements to detectives, that he targeted the woman because "he thought she was white," Irvine police said.

Officials stated that they believe the assault took place due to the hate crimes recently committed against the Asian community.

"The Irvine Police Department and the city of Irvine do not tolerate violent crimes against women or hate-related crimes in our community," they said over Facebook.

"Detectives are adding hate crime charges to their complaint with the Orange County District Attorney's Office."