On January 25, 1986 in South Central Los Angeles, Herman Atkins, a disciplined student

athlete who enjoyed refurbishing low-rider Chevy's was paying a local mechanic for an

engine rebuild when a robber snatched the money and took off on foot.

Herman grabbed the mechanic's gun and chased the robber firing warning shots into the air.

The robber turned a corner and Herman heard more gunshots.

When he reached the corner, he happened upon another crime scene.

There were cop cars and people wounded and Herman frightened, ditched the gun and retreated.

After blanketing the area and questioning the mechanic, police wanted Atkins in connection

with the shooting and wounding of three people, including two police officers.

Something Herman would be totally unaware of until authorities caught up with him while

he was visiting family and venies in November of that year.

Fingerprints on the gun found at the crime scene did not match Herman, but with two newborn

sons and prosecutors promising a guilty verdict and a terribly long sentence, if he went

to trial, Herman pled no contest to the charges in exchange for a lighter sentence, but this

was just the beginning.

On April 8, 1986, while Herman Atkins' picture was being circulated by police in connection

with the January 25 incident, an armed man forced a 23-year-old store clerked into the

back room of her shop to perform moral sex on him in Lake Elson, or California.

A city Herman had never visited.

During the rape, the assailant ejaculated and wiped his seamen on her sweater, evidence

that would later clear Herman's name.

The armed robber and rapist fled with $130 in cash and the victim's jewelry.

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