Gerardo Lopez
A convicted sex offender was arrested Wednesday night on charges of sexual assault.
Tucson police officers caught Gerardo Lopez, 54, as he was assaulting a 34-year-old woman in a desert area northwest of Interstate 10 at South Park Avenue, said Sgt. Fabian Pacheco, a department spokesman.
Lopez, a level 3 sex offender, was convicted of attempted sexual conduct with a minor stemming from an incident in 1986, according to an online search of state corrections and sex offender data.
Lopez lives near the area where the incident took place, according to state sex offender records.
Pacheco said that police received a 911 call from a cell phone about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. He said operator could hear the sounds of a woman being assaulted and dispatched patrol officers to search the area near the interchange.
Police found Lopez sexually assaulting the woman within minutes, Pacheco said.
The woman told detectives that she was walking through the desert when Lopez confronted her. She managed to call 911 but was not able to speak to the operator.
Lopez has been charged with three counts of sexual assault, one count of sexual abuse and one count of kidnapping.