LOS ANGELES — He attacked women either late at night or early in the morning, and usually on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. His first victim was a 37-year-old Korean woman. Hr robbed and raped her in her apartment on Aug. 26, 2004.

The Koreatown Rapist, as the Los Angeles Police Department began to call him, went on to rape and/or rob 12 more women, ages 17 to 55, terrorizing the neighborhood for nearly a year. Eleven of his 13 victims, all Asian, are of Korean descent.

“We looked for similarities in the victims,” said Deputy Chief Richard Roupoli. “Maybe they went to the same hairdresser, got their nails done at the same place. … We looked for commonalities.”

The LAPD deployed four detectives and 16 officers into Koreatown in July to find the suspect, described only as a black man armed with a handgun and driving a green car. On July 29 at about 1 a.m., two undercover officers spotted a green Honda in the area where some of the attacks had occurred. The driver “appeared to match the description given by several victims,” according to an LAPD statement.

Noticing that he was being watched, Tyreese Lamar Reed stopped his car and approached the officers. He flashed a badge, said he was a parole agent and drove away.

The officers followed Reed to Hobart and Sixth streets, where he ran into his apartment building. The officers called for backup and Reed later surrendered.

A search of Reed’s apartment revealed a Beretta Model 92F, similar to the weapon victims had described. The badge turned out to be a hat adornment from the California Department of Corrections.

A DNA test linked the 29-year-old electrical technician to six of the crimes. The District Attorney’s Office on Aug. 2 charged Reed with 18 felony counts, including sodomy, rape, kidnapping and burglary. He’s being held on $5 million bail. If convicted, Reed faces up to six consecutive life terms with the possibility of parole.

— Grace E. Jang