A man who last month entered pleas in connection with a series of assaults in Reston is facing new charges after an abduction attempt in Pentagon City last night.
The latest incident happened just before 8 p.m. Wednesday on the 1400 block of S. Hayes Street.
Arlington County police say 28-year-old Koby Berry put his hand over the mouth of a woman as she entered a bathroom at a Pentagon City shopping center. He then “pushed her further into the bathroom” but she “was able to get away from the suspect, run from the bathroom and yell for assistance.”
“The suspect fled the scene on foot and an employee called police, provided a description of the suspect and the direction he fled in,” police said in a press release today. “Responding officers located the suspect at Virginia Highlands Park and took him into custody.”
Detectives are now looking for potential additional victims.
“Anyone who has additional information related to this investigation or has had past inappropriate encounters with the suspect is asked to contact Detective S. Yanda at 703-228-4244 or [email protected],” the press release said. “Information may also be provided anonymously through the Arlington County Crime Solvers hotline at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).”
Berry has been charged with Attempted Abduction with Intent to Defile and Assault & Battery, according to ACPD, and is being held without bond.
This is not his first run-in with the law. In April, Berry pleaded no contest and guilty, respectively, to two counts of assault and battery in Fairfax County, according to court records.
As reported by FFXnow and other local outlets, he had been charged with assault and other crimes after a series of incidents in the Reston area this past October and November.
Those incidents included allegedly touching a woman “inappropriately” at a store, stealing a woman’s phone, striking a man walking on the W&OD Trail, tackling a woman bicycling on the W&OD Trail, and exposing himself to women in a hotel room.
Berry received a 180 day sentence, with the entire sentence suspended, after his April guilty plea, court records show. He received a 120 day sentence — entirely suspended — for the no contest plea, and was also sentenced to supervised probation. Several assault charges, plus the indecent exposure and theft charges, were either dropped or dismissed.
