With every meeting and every statement from Baltimore police, we learn new and conflicting information about a series of rapes in Mount Vernon.
Now we're hearing that not all the rapes occurred in that one historic neighborhood. At least one might have occurred as far away as Bolton Hill, which is really not that far away.
"There are not six rapes in Mount Vernon," Maj. John Bailey, the commander of the Central District, told about 30 members of the Mount Vernon-Belvedere Community Association on Tuesday night.
The Police Department hasn't made public the precise locations of the attacks, which officials said started back in July, so determining the geographic boundaries of the predator has been rather difficult.
Police mentioned four addresses at the meeting. Attacks in the 900 block of St. Paul St. and the 500 block of Cathedral St. are in Mount Vernon. Attacks in the 1200 blocks of St. Paul and Calvert streets are in neighboring Mid-Town Belvedere. The dividing line seems pointless, considering that the rapes are blocks apart in a confined area north of downtown.
Bailey addressed the community group with three colleagues, including a lieutenant and a sergeant from the sex offense unit.
He told the residents, "We have a sense of urgency." He said he has detailed six officers in plainclothes to work the Mount Vernon streets from 4 p.m. to 6 a.m. to gather intelligence.
"They are stopping people and interviewing people," Bailey said, adding that names are being kept and backgrounds checked. "We are finding a lot of people with criminal records out walking around. Is that against the law? Absolutely not. But we are making sure that they know that we know who they are."
Bailey said detectives believe that two of the six attacks are linked. Those occurred within days on St. Paul Street. In both cases, police said, a man climbed a fire escape and entered second-story apartments through unlocked windows.
The rape on Cathedral Street occurred during the day, and the victim was a homeless person attacked in an alley. Bailey said it doesn't fit the pattern of the other two. In at least one other attack, the one on North Calvert Street, Bailey said the victim's account contains inconsistencies. The locations and details of the other rapes were not divulged.
