The Alexandria Police Department has secured an arrest warrant for a 30-year-old D.C. man in connection to the sexual assault that allegedly occurred in broad daylight at a park near Holmes Run Trail on Tuesday, March 10.
On March 10, the victim reported to police that she was walking home along the trail near Tarleton Park when she saw a man sitting on a park bench. Around noon, the woman heard running footsteps behind her, and as she leaned over to adjust her shopping bags, “she felt hands on the side of her hips and her pants being pulled down,” according to a recently released search warrant affidavit.
The victim told police that her pants were pulled down to the middle of her buttocks, and she yelled at the suspect and slipped down an embankment as he approached her.
“As [the victim] stood in the creek, the suspect stood at the top of the path, with his hands near his belt and started to open his pants,” according to the search warrant affidavit. “[The victim] said she was screaming and the suspect ran westbound into the park [toward Holmes Run Trail].”
APD tracked the suspect with multiple surveillance cameras, capturing him sitting at the park bench, approaching the victim, running from the scene and getting on a DASH bus. The suspect took a bus to Charles E. Beatley Jr. Central Library and used a public computer around 12:45 p.m., according to the affidavit. Police also found footage of the suspect entering a CVS, buying a drink and getting back on a DASH bus to get on a train at the Van Dorn Metro station.
The suspect was arrested in D.C. on April 4, and later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor sexual abuse of a minor. He was certified as a sex offender, and on May 20 was sentenced to 60 days in jail, according to court records.
APD was also granted an arrest warrant against the suspect for assault and battery, a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and/or a $2,500 fine.
