Teen Girls Sexually Assaulted in Rancho Peñasquitos Park

Two teenage girls were sexually assaulted in a Rancho Peñasquitos park over the weekend after they stepped away from a family gathering to talk, police said Tuesday.

The girls, ages 15 and 16, were at a family party on the 12600 block of Spindletop Road around 8:30 p.m. Saturday when they went to a park nearby, according to a police statement.

The two suspects walked on a path by the girls, who were sitting under a tree, but the teens were not concerned once the men were out of sight, police said. However, the suspects then approached the girls from behind, putting a knife to the the throat of one girl and a hand over the other girl's mouth.

The girls were told that if they did not scream they would not be hurt, according to the statement.

The suspects then forced the girls at knifepoint to walk to a more secluded area of the park where they sexually assaulted the girls for 20 to 30 minutes, police said. The assault stopped when relatives of the girls called their names, looking for them.

The suspects told the girls to walk away in one direction, and they rode away on a bicycle in the opposite direction. The suspects are described as clean shaven, average build Hispanic males between 18 and 20 years old, about 5-foot-6-inches tall. One suspect had a knife, and was described as wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his head. The other suspect was described as wearing a white T-shirt with a Padres logo on the front and a flat-brimmed baseball cap.

Anyone with information is asked to call the San Diego Police Department's Sex Crimes Unit at 619-531-2210 or San Diego County Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.

City News Service contributed to this report.