Fontana police continued their investigation Saturday into the carjacking, rape and shooting of a Press-Enterprise circulation employee, while the woman's condition was improving at an area hospital, officials said.

Police released few new details in the case that began early Friday morning when the 28-year-old employee was filling newspaper racks in the area of Sierra and Ivy avenues.

Rick Danzey, a spokesman for Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton where the woman underwent surgery on Friday, said Saturday that the woman's condition was continuing to improve. Danzey said she had been moved from intensive care to a regular floor and doctors expected her to recover.

Fontana police Detective Mike Stark said authorities are continuing to interview witnesses and are waiting for the woman to recover enough to look at photographic lineup.

Police arrested a 34-year-old Fontana man Friday in connection with the crime. Stark said he did not expect to release the suspect's name until Monday, or perhaps Tuesday, because of the ongoing investigation.

Stark said the department also was not releasing more information about the suspect's background. On Friday, police said the man had four previous convictions but they did not say what they were for.

The suspect was initially booked into West Valley Detention Center on suspicion of attempted murder, rape, kidnapping and carjacking, police said. On Saturday, Lt. Chris Tronaas said investigators added a second count of attempted murder and a count of robbery to the suspect's booking information.

Tronaas said he expects the San Bernardino County district attorney's office to file the charges on Tuesday.

The suspect, who police have now identified as a gang member, was being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

The attack began at about 5:30 a.m. when the employee had just finished filling a newspaper rack near a doughnut shop. She was walking back to her van when she was accosted by a man armed with a small-caliber handgun.

The assailant forced the woman to drive to an unknown location on Base Line Road. The gunman then told the driver to stop the van, and he raped her, police said.

The attacker then forced the woman to drive to the Cypress Community Center in the 8300 block of Cypress Avenue. Once there, the man forced her into a portable toilet and shot her twice -- once in the head and again in the chest. The assailant then took off in the van, leaving the victim behind.

The victim was able to walk out into the middle of Cypress and scream for help. That's when a good Samaritan, who told police she wanted to remain anonymous, picked her up and drove her to the police department.

The victim had worked for the newspaper for two weeks. Her name is being withheld because of the nature of the crime.

Officers still were checking to see if the attack might have been related to the killing of Lorena Pena-Gonzalez, a Fontana mother of three who was fatally shot in the chest July 24 by a purse snatcher on Sierra Avenue, just south of the location of Friday's attack.

Police have said that while they have made no connection between Friday's crime and the killing of Pena-Gonzalez, there are similar suspect descriptions in both crimes.

Joanna Frazier can be reached by e-mail at jfrazier@pe.com, or by phone at (909) 890-4454.

Published 8/15/1999