Accused Bayshore rapist arrested

TAMPA - Luis Marcelo Munuzuri Harris was arrested Saturday morning, accused of impersonating a police officer and committing sexual battery.

Handcuffed and escorted by police, Harris was taken to jail, but not before giving his side of the story.

"I didn't rape that young lady," Harris said to reporters outside police headquarters. "It has to do with a sexual battery in 1999 where I was acquitted. Now they're trying to do the same thing. Look at the records of Volusia County, in 1999 I was found not guilty by a jury trial. And now they're trying to pin another on me. I didn't rape anybody."

Investigators say Harris posed as a cop Thursday night, pulled over a woman, robbed her, and then sexually assaulted her. The next da,y he was involved in another incident, this time at a bar in Tampa.

"Apparently, [Friday] night he approached two people at Pete's Place, which is that club they were at," said Lt. Donny Peters with Tampa police, "and he identified himself as a narcotics detective."

Investigators say a small fight broke out at the bar and Harris took off.

"The officers responded and when they got there, bystanders said the person driving that car had a gun," said Lt. Peters. "So the officers followed that car and it went down a dead end street."

The chase nearly ended on Hubert and Henderson when Harris almost drove into a ditch. He got out of the car and took off on foot. Detectives say he found an office building a couple of blocks away and ran up the stairs to the roof. At that point, he had nowhere to go, and police were able to place him under arrest.

Harris is facing a slew of charges, including two counts of impersonating a police officer, two counts of armed kidnapping, and sexual battery.