Ramon Escobar: Police identified as "violent predator" accused of homeless beatings in Southern California

LOS ANGELES, California – A "violent predator", suspected of perpetrating a series of attacks on seven mostly homeless men in Southern California, brutally beat them and killed three, was also investigated for disappearances. two of his relatives in Texas.

Ramon Escobar, 47, a homeless man himself, may have targeted his victims to steal them, police captain William Hayes told reporters in Los Angeles.

Hayes called Escobar a "violent predator" and said the investigators thought he had gone to California from Houston and attacked the men in Los Angeles and Santa Monica from September 8, said Hayes.

CBS Los Angeles reports that the police recovered a wooden baseball bat and a pair of bolt cutters from the Escobar car that allegedly were used during the attacks.

"I think it was a crime of opportunity," Hayes said. "… It seems that the motive in most of these cases was a robbery."

Escobar was arrested Monday in Santa Monica, in the suburbs of Los Angeles, after a man sitting on a sidewalk was beaten unconscious and stripped of some of his belongings, police said. This victim remains in a coma.

Police will ask prosecutors on Wednesday to charge three charges of murder and four charges of attempted murder on Escobar, officials said.

He is detained without bail and it was not immediately known if he had a lawyer able to speak on his behalf.

Houston police said in a statement that Escobar was interested in last month's disappearances by 60-year-old Dina Escobar and 65-year-old brother Rogelio Escobar.

Dina Escobar's pickup truck was found in Galveston, Texas, a few days after searching for her brother. She was last seen on August 28, two days after her brother's disappearance, the statement said.

Ramon Escobar is their nephew, and the Texas authorities have said they want to talk to him.

Dina's daughter, Ligia Salamanca, spoke on Tuesday to CBS subsidiary KHOU-TV.

"The detectives called me last night so I knew before I saw him on the media that there was an arrest of a family member and that this could be related to our affair "said Salamanca.

She told KHOU-TV that she was heartbroken, but that she felt better about having answers.

"Not knowing is the worst, going to sleep every night without knowing where your family is, what they are going through or if something serious has happened, not having them at home to find out what they are cross – to rest them if that's what it means, "she said.

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