Killer Was Trying To Murder Another When We Caught Him: Police

VAN NUYS, CA — A fugitive murder and rape suspect struck again in North Hollywood, where he was arrested before he could kill a woman being held captive, police alleged Friday.

New details emerged Friday in the dramatic arrest of a 27-year-old New Haven, Connecticut man wanted for the rape of one woman and the murder of another in New York. Police believe he found his alleged victims on online dating sites and that there may be additional victims in the Los Angeles area.

Danueal Drayton is accused of sexually assaulting the 28-year-old woman, trying to strangle her and refusing to let her leave her North Hollywood apartment, according to Deputy District Attorney Elan Carr. Drayton is charged with one count each of attempted murder, forcible rape, false imprisonment by violence and sexual penetration by a foreign object involving the alleged attack last weekend in North Hollywood.

The crimes allegedly occurred last Sunday and Monday. Drayton was arrested about 5 p.m. Tuesday by Los Angeles police in North Hollywood and could face more than 23 years to life in prison if convicted as charged.

Drayton is also suspected of murdering Samantha Stewart, a 29-year-old nurse in Queens and raping another woman in Brooklyn a month before that.

Kenneth Stewart, Samantha Stewart's father, praised police for saving another woman from suffering his daughter's fate when news of Drayton's arrest broke.

"Right after he commits a gruesome murder here and destroys my family, he went to California and just almost did the same thing," he told CBS. "Thank God they catch him before he could destroy another family."

Before Stewart was found dead in her Queens apartment from trauma to her head an neck, police allege Drayton raped a young woman in Brooklyn.

City News Service contributed to this report. City News Service contributed to this report. Photo courtesy of the New York Police Department