San Diego

A seventh suspect was arrested Friday in the rape of a 22-year-old Santee woman in Balboa Park, police said.

Manuel Rendia, 21, was taken into custody by a park security officer shortly after 7 a.m. near the site of the rape, police spokesman Bill Robinson said.

The woman told police she was standing near Balboa Drive and Laurel Street between 6:30 and 7:15 a.m. Monday when she was grabbed by two men and forced at knifepoint into nearby bushes, where the pair were joined by four male accomplices.

The latest arrest brings the total to seven.

Robinson said one of the first three suspects arrested Monday, a 16-year-old boy, was being detained as a material witness.

Arthur Cavada, a police investigator, said the 16-year-old was not involved in the assault. “We are going to the district attorney’s office to have charges against him dropped,” Cavada said.

Two other juveniles who were arrested Monday and booked into Juvenile Hall face charges of rape and forced oral copulation.

Two suspects arrested Wednesday--Jose Jesus Leyva-Hernandez, 24, and Gabriel Gutierrez, 22--and one arrested Thursday, Miguel DeLeon, 19--are being held in County Jail downtown. Those three face charges of sexual assault.