Caguas Criminal Investigations Corps agents arrested a suspect in the rape of a 20-year-old college student in the Certenejas ward in Cidra on Friday morning.

He was identified as Daniel O. “Danny” Colón Ortiz, 19, an area resident.

According to the police investigation, the victim knew the suspect from her community and saw him at a pub, where he asked her for a ride home.

While they were in the car, the suspect took control of the vehicle, raped the victim, hit her with a iron and cement pieces and left her for dead. At dawn, the woman walked to a house in the Montalván sector of the Arenas ward in Cidra, where the suspect had abandoned her, and she was rushed to the Mennonite Hospital in Cayey, giving police the name of her assailant.

Assistant District Attorney Francisco González authorized charges for attempted murder, rape, carjacking, weapons law violation, robbery, sexual assault and kidnapping to be filed against Colón Ortiz.

Police were also trying to obtain a search warrant for the suspect's home to gather further evidence, since he is also a suspect in the rape and murder of another two women who lived in the area, including a 74-year-old woman and the deceased wife of Juan A. Martínez Matos, the man charged with killing Jorge Steven López.

The wife of Martínez Matos, identified as Clarissa Carrasquillo Ortiz, 23, was stabbed to death after being raped in front of her two- year-old son on June 29 in the Certenejas ward.

About two months ago, Hipólita Ortiz Hernández, 74, also known as “Doña Pola,” was also stabbed in the kitchen of her Certenejas home.

Man's body found in Cidra

Meanwhile, Ponce Homicide agents were seeking to identify a man whose body was found at 7:30 a.m. Friday in the Flamboyanes sector of Cidra.

The body of the victim was found with a stab wound to the back of his head, two on his back and one on the left side of his torso.

The unidentified victim was described as 5 feet and 1 inch tall, weighing about 120 pounds, with medium-toned skin, black hair and with a “flames” tattoo on his left arm and an angel tattoo on his right leg. He was wearing a black T-shirt, blue jeans and black sneakers.

There have been 852 homicides so far this year, 81 more in the same period last year.

9 wounded in separate incidents

Police said nine people were wounded in separate incidents between Thursday and Friday.

Among the latest incidents, was an assault inside the First Bank branch located on road PR-3 in Humacao.

According to police, two First Bank customers had a fist fight inside the bank and one of them pulled a knife, stabbing Miguel Escalera Massó, a resident of the Patagonia ward in Humacao, three times.

Escalera Massó was rushed to the Doctor Domínguez Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition, while three persons were in Police custody for investigation. The name of the man who allegedly stabbed the victim was not released.

In another case, an elderly man assaulted his son with a machete in the Collores sector of the Santa Olaya ward in Bayamón on Thursday evening.

The son was identified as Milton Martínez García, 33, who had an argument with his father, José Martínez Galarza, 63, and the latter cut him with a machete.

Martínez García was rushed to the Bayamón Regional Hospital, where a doctor sewed 26 stitches on his head and one of his arms.

No criminal charges were filed because Martínez Galarza is a mental patient. Vélez suggested the relatives of Martínez Galarza seek a judicial order to admit him into a psychiatric institution.

Another assault was reported at 10:30 p.m. in the El Bungaló tavern in Ceiba, where an argument between two men ended with one of them being cut with a glass bottle.

The victim was identified as Héctor Martínez Rodríguez, 38, a resident of Juncos, who was listed in stable condition in the San Pablo Hospital in Fajardo, with cuts to his chin, neck, chest and hands.

Another dispute among groups wearing masks was reported at 10 p.m. in the La Paloma sector of the Naranjito ward in Hatillo, where a male was shot in the chest.

The victim was identified as Elvin Arguelles Rodríguez, 20, a resident of Arecibo, who was rushed to the Arecibo Regional Hospital and listed in stable condition.

Another man was wounded at 10:15 p.m. in front of the La Colmena tavern in the Vista Mar urbanization in Ponce.

The victim was identified as Luis M. Cruz Velázquez, 28, a resident of Ponce, who was rushed to the Damas Hospital in Ponce, from where he was referred to the Río Piedras Medical Center with a fracture on his forearm because due to a bullet wound.