GILROY – A 32-year-old transient man has been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, raping and trying to kill a woman in Gilroy, authorities said.
About 11 p.m. Tuesday, a citizen reported hearing a man and a woman yelling under a bridge on the 300 block of Welburn Avenue, Gilroy police said in a news release. Officers arrived to find a woman calling for help and a shirtless man running from the area.
Police said the officers chased after the man and quickly detained him.
The woman told police that the man had just kidnapped, raped, strangled and beaten her under the bridge, adding that she did not know him. She was taken to a hospital to be treated and examined.
The man, identified as Mohammed Novbakhtian, was arrested and booked into Santa Clara County jail on charges of rape by force, kidnapping, false imprisonment and attempted murder. Police said he was on felony probation at the time of his arrest.
Novbakhtian is being held at the Main Jail in San Jose without bail, according to jail records.