Police Seek Man Who Sexually Assaulted Girl Outside Laundromat

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by ARLnow.com July 29, 2010 at 9:29 am 2,223 26 Comments

Arlington County Police are searching for a man suspected of sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl outside a South Arlington laundromat on Sunday.

Police say the man approached the girl while her mother was inside the laundromat at 3600 Columbia Pike.

“The suspect pulled the child inside a small play house and sexually assaulted her,” police said in a statement. “The child was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.”

The man is described as Hispanic, 5’1″, 130 lbs, with brown eyes, bushy black hair and a mustache. Police will be canvasing the area around the laundromat today, handing out flyers with the suspect’s sketch and information about the crime.

Anyone with information about the suspect should call Arlington County Crime Solvers at 866-411-TIPS (8477). A reward of up to $1,000 is being offered in the case.

Katie

I want to vomit.
- TGEoA
  
  I want to castrate.
Anthony

This man should be deported.
- Greg
  
  Without his testicles.
- Fat Kid.
  
  I didn’t see anything stating he was illegal?
  
  Oh, you mean because he has brown skin he can be deported? I get it now…
maria

I agree, these are the kind of ppl that should b deported! The criminals!!! This man is sick and was always trying to have conversations with little girls! Disgusting!
Joe

Did anyone see Fox5’s story on this last night? They made the Arlington County police look L-A-Z-Y. Evidently this flyer was put together, but as of last (Wednesday) night it wasn’t even distributed in the neighborhood. This despite the fact that the event occurred Sunday.

You know the old saw—if the Police would spend a little less time whining about Ron Carlee, and a little more time enforcing the law…
- Matt
  
  Joe,
  1. The Police Dept. is hiring so why don’t you join and enact some change? or if being a cop isnt your thing, why dont you volunteer to help canvass the neighborhood? or are you just too lazy? Monday morning quarterbacking is a lot of fun when you hide behind your computer. This poor girl’s tragic misfortune should not be used as another platform for you to slam what you perceive as an incompetent PD
  2. Ron Carlee is no longer the County Manager.
  - Joe
    
    The petition happened because Mike Staples was mad at Ron Carlee. The impact on all the special permissions Arlington had won from Richmond for nondiscrimination policies, affordable housing, and the like would be “collateral damage” if Staples and the Police union’s head had their way.
    
    It is the right of citizens to question the police. We assume the ACPD is competent, but then their union head relies on “good references” for an outfit that, if he had spent 15 minutes on Google, he would have seen that “National Solutions” has ties to a “John Burkett Petition Management” that submitted 3,000 fradulent signatures in San Bernadino, CA. So, you know, color me skeptical.
dpan

I’m a father of a little girl and an occasional patron of this exact laundromat and its excellent adjacent peruvian chicken joint. This really hits close to home.

From what I am able to glean on this, I think the police are doing a pretty disappointing job. To hear that the flyers were not posted in a timely fashion and witnesses have not been engaged by police is extremely disappointing.

If this was my daughter, and this is how the police reacted, I’d be on fire.

I try to avoid indulging in this kind of rhetorical folly, but I can’t help but wonder: if this was in Clarendon, would the police response be this weak?
Neighbor

WTF? I live right down the street from that intersection and this is the first time I’ve heard about this. Alert the neighbors for god’s sake. I’d like to break my fist on this guy.
Detective Crystal Nosal

I am writing in response to Fox 5’s story, and other comments posted regarding the swiftness of the response to this horrible crime. The incident occurred on Sunday evening, and the victim and witnesses were immediately interviewed by detectives. This case has been taken VERY seriously. Detectives have been interviewing people in the area and collecting evidence since Sunday evening. The composite was developed at the first opportunity of the witness, which happened to be yesterday afternoon. As SOON as it was approved, I contacted the local media. I made sure the composite was broadcast at the first opportunity, making the suspect composite available to as many people as possible in the shortest time. I have contacted Fox 5 myself to state how disappointed I was at the way the piece was portrayed to the public. This morning has been the first opportunity for officers and detectives to canvas the neighborhood with the composite sketch, and they are doing so. Detective Crystal Nosal, Arlington County Police Department, Media Relations Office
- Joe
  
  Crystal,
  
  Maybe your colleagues should spend a little less time whining about your pension. Spend less time pushing for a change that would hold affordable housing and effective day care hostage if said change goes through.
  
  Instead, spend a little more time doing actual police work, like protecting the public. Oh, and a little bit of time checking on the people your union leaders pay to circulate said petitions, to make sure they don’t offload the responsibility to convicted felons.
  
  Kudos to Fox5 for not taking the APD’s word that they are “working” on the case at face value.
  - Matt
    
    How many “in uniform” cops have you ever seen actually doing any of the things you allege Joe? I’m sure it would be illegal for them to do any such thing while on duty on the county dime. Instead they’re out protecting schmucks like you and looking for the dirtbags that would commit such a horrible crime like this. Why don’t you move to DC and see how well the police respond to your gripes and see how safe you feel there!
    - Joe
      
      That’s fair, Matt. The ACPD and ACFD would not push for the petition while on duty. In making the point about misplaced priorities, I implied that ACPD and ACFD would engage in the petition drive while on duty. I didn’t mean to do that.
      
      What I should have said is that the ACPD and ACFD shouldn’t have gotten so wrapped up in the petition that everything else fell by the wayside.
      
      If you want public support for your pension, then knock yourselves out to do your jobs. But is that really happening? Beyond failing to notify the immediate community, look right at the Courthouse area. Just this week Arlnow.com reported a purse snatching in Courthouse, in front of ACPD headquarters. Take a walk through Courthouse. Do you feel the motorists barreling through there are at all cognizant of what you would think would be an extensive police presence? That would be a “no”.
      
      The petition fiasco, using convicted felons to lie about gathering signatures, doesn’t make the rank-and-file look very good. That is a real cost that the rank-and-file Arlington police and fire are going to have to bear.
- Another civic activist
  
  I am as critical as anyone about the change of government thing, which is about poor leadership by Ken Dennis and Mike Staples, not rank and file police and firemen, but I want to say here how much I appreciate that Detective Nosal came on this site and explained the circumstances.
  
  Our police do a rather good job when it comes to violent crime in Arlington, which has decreased year after year even amid population increases and economic difficulties. So thanks, Detective. We really do appreciate the hard work you do, and I salute you.
  
  After you catch this guy, I hope you can do something about Ken Dennis and the people who represent you who have unfairly and inappropriately harmed the department’s reputation.
- dpan
  
  Det. Nosal-
  I’m really glad to see you commenting on this thread. I understand that it is really awful when seemingly unqualified or uninformed people people tell you how to do your job–believe me, it’s an integral part of my line of work (I’m not a cop).
  
  I for one am generally very satisfied, if not impressed, by the work of ACPD. I have seen swift responses and thorough followups after a few incidents in my own neighborhood and have come to have a greater appreciation for the men and women carrying out their duty.
  
  Is is for this exact reason that I am so disappointed, or maybe confused, with what appears to have happened in this case. The timeline of this incident raises a lot of questions. The sensitive nature of this incident also provides a launching pad for
  
  I think the issue that sticks with me is that the community was apparently not alerted in a timely manner that such a heinous crime had been committed and that the person wanted in the incident was on the loose. This incident may have been handled within the the relevant police procedure, but police procedure may be out of sync with the community.
  
  There are a number of ways that the community could have been alerted, quickly and efficiently, not the least of which is the Arlington Alert system, which is followed by many community leaders. The County’s Twitter feed is another quick way to broadcast a message.
  
  Perhaps the County’s policies surrounding what constitutes an official alert message could stand to be reexamined. Is this anything that you can address?
  - dpan
    
    pardon the typo–a cut and paste error…
concerned

Detective – even if the composite was not available, as a resident of this neighborhood I am disappointed that this is the first we have heard about it. There are many children in the neighborhood and some advance notice would have been appreciated!
Neighbor

Detective –

Forget the focus on local media. I think it would be helpful if the police immediately alerted the heads of the community and neighborhood associations (who have email list access) when this kind of terrible crime happens. Not only would we be more timely informed, it would put the community on instant alert and we might even catch a criminal or two. Let’s get with the times.
- Another civic activist
  
  The local media is important, but the poster otherwise makes a good point. Some of these neighborhoods have superb listserves and outreach mechanisms. A few have community police representatives who monitor them and do post information relevant to the community. It’s a great resource to remember.
Chris

I’m astonished that some people are taking such a tragic situation and trying to use it against a petition drive that concluded 2 weeks ago. It’s shameful.
- Thes
  
  We need to remember that citizens and the police can make our community safest when we can work together with trust and open lines of communication. I’m glad to see Detective Crystal Nosal is monitoring the blogs to help make sure that communication takes place and that that helps catch this criminal. Detective Nosal, like most members of the Arlington Police, likely have no idea (or didn’t until now) what a terrible thing their union leaders have done to them and their reputation through their awful choices as they attempted to pay to overthrow the County government. Hopefully they will elect different leadership soon. In the meantime, Detective Nosal and her colleagues are our best hope for finding a dangerous, violent child molester. I hope there is enough trust remaining to get that done.
ALICAT

If the police can’t manage their own petition circulators its no shock they can’t handle child molesters. Maybe the polic had no idea what happened, but I haven’t heard them complaining about it or disavowing it. All I see is police who don’t care about anyone but themselves. They may be our best hope, but that’s no comfort. I suspect that their government dissatisfaction will lead to “slow walking” whatever they can get away with.
Neighbor

I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for the ACPD and ACFD. I wish we could pay them more and I wish we had more of both of them. When you screw up at your job, you don’t get the kind of public scrutiny that they face.

I think we all just want to ensure that we’re utilizing all forms of communication and technology with the community (ie, association and neighborhood listservs). Active and engaged communities, when informed of what’s going on in their communities and happening to their neighbors, can be very powerful in working to apprehend criminals and deter crime, in general.

Now, enough with the chatter on what should have been done, let’s let the police focus on getting this piece of trash behind bars.
david

disgusting. i have a 7 yr old daughter. this pig needs his cajones cut off. maybe then perps will think twice before doing something like this.
but i wouldnt doubt this occured in arlington, arlington cops are not scary as with dc cops.
you want some scary cops head to fairfax, they need to train the others

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