WASHINGTON — Prince William County police have identified and arrested a man they say was connected to a rape in July.
Damion Jalil Peterson, 26, of Woodbridge, was arrested on multiple charges, among them of a rape that happened last July in the same block as his residence on Stevenson Court.
Police said in a news release that in August, Peterson was a person of interest in the rape. They executed a search warrant in his home in connection to the rape investigation and an unrelated narcotics investigation, and they found a firearm and evidence of marijuana possession and distribution. They took Peterson into custody on drug and weapon charges.
Police then connected him to a May 16 shooting that happened on the 4100 block of Hoffman Drive in Woodbridge — where a 19-year-old man was shot by a suspect who turned out be Peterson — leading to additional charges.
In October, forensics results of evidence from the July rape and other investigative analysis connected Peterson to the sexual assault. He was charged Wednesday of rape, in addition to other felonies.
The victim told police she was returning to her apartment in the 12200 block of Stevenson Court near Lake Ridge Park shortly after 6 a.m. July 25, when an unknown man confronted her in an enclosed stairwell.
The man pulled out a gun and forced her to the rear of the apartment building where he raped her, police said. He took the woman’s gray windbreaker jacket and then ordered her to walk into a nearby woods as he fled on foot, the woman told police.
Police said the woman described her attacker as a black man between 25 and 30 years old, about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, with a heavy build and a “beer belly.” He had a short black Afro hairstyle with a half-sleeve tattoo on his right arm containing writing and angel wings. Police later said that the tattoo depicted an angel, not just angel wings.
Peterson has been in custody in Manassas since August.
WTOP’s Jack Moore contributed to this report.
