A man arrested Friday and charged with theft for allegedly stealing a Waffle House cash register is believed to be the same man responsible for sexually assaulting three women, East Point police said.
Police charged the man in connection to the Waffle House theft and were securing warrants for additional charges, Capt. Cliff Chandler with East Point police said late Friday. Those charges include kidnapping, rape, aggravated assault, hijacking a motor vehicle and possession of weapon during the commission of a felony, Chandler told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“I am confident that the person we have in custody is responsible,” Chandler said Friday afternoon.
The development ends an extensive weeklong search for the man, linked to three assaults within four days. Police declined to release details about the man’s arrest, but Channel 2 Action News reported he was found hiding in a closet.
The suspect was taken into custody a week after the first incident at the complex, where a teacher was carjacked, pistol-whipped and assaulted before being forced to drive to an ATM early Sept. 2, according to police. The woman was able to jump from the moving vehicle and run to safety.
Then, four days later, two more women were the victims of similar crimes, police said.
Around 10 p.m. Tuesday, two women said they were returning home together when a gunman approached them in the parking lot of the complex on Washington Road, got into the back seat of their vehicle and forced them to drive to an ATM along Camp Creek Parkway, according to police. The gunman then made the women drive back to the complex, where he raped both of them, police said.
After the Tuesday attacks, investigators said the description of the suspect matched that of the previous assault, and police said all three cases were linked. A GBI sketch of the suspect was released, along with video of the suspect inside one victim’s townhouse, to help identify the person was responsible.
In the Tuesday night assaults, the man told the women he is an aspiring singer who had a bad home life and felt neglected, according to police. On Friday, police found the suspect shirtless and hiding in a hot water heater closet, Channel 2 reported.
In an unrelated incident, the suspect previously worked at a Waffle House restaurant, Chandler said. When he quit the job, the suspect allegedly took the cash register.
The man was being held at East Point police headquarters, Chandler said.
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