Dixon Stetler, who moved to Baltimore from North Carolina last month, sat on the steps of her Mount Vernon apartment Wednesday, working on an art project.
Learning that a woman had been raped in her St. Paul Street apartment the afternoon before, just a few blocks from Stetler's place on North Calvert Street, she expressed a sentiment that echoed through this midtown neighborhood.
"I'm terrified," said Stetler, who plans to attend graduate school at Maryland Institute College of Art. "I've seen so many crazy things in the past month. I've even seen a dead body."
Police quickly arrested a suspect, Karriem Mason, 37, of the 1100 block of McKean Ave. in West Baltimore. He was charged with first- and second-degree rape, four counts of a sexual offense, first- and second-degree armed robbery, theft and robbery.
City police are crediting members of the Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association, as well as the victim, for helping catch the suspect. Within hours after a mass email was sent out by the association, police arrested Mason at his home.
"It worked out great. We put out the information to their subscribers, and within hours we were flooded with a location of this individual," police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said at a news conference.
It turned out that Mason lived two blocks from the Western District police station in Sandtown-Winchester.
Mason, who had been arrested May 28 and charged with drug possession, was identified by the victim, according to police.
Authorities said the woman, who is in her 20s, was approached as she was moving into an apartment in the 900 block of St. Paul St. She had been unpacking her car, which was parked in front of the building, when she was forced into the apartment she had recently rented.
Police said she was raped, and then her attacker ordered her to shower, which authorities believe was to remove evidence and to try and throw off investigators. Guglielmi said he didn't know whether a gun was involved in the attack.
"It was tremendous work by the police detectives, and it's tremendous work by the community, and underscores the vital importance of the partnership we have with neighborhood associations," Guglielmi said.
City Councilman William H. Cole IV, who represents Mount Vernon, said, "When a crime like this happens, it's always disturbing. But to make an arrest that quickly shows that they got the word out."
Jason Curtis, president of the Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association, said the initial email went out within 20 minutes of the association learning of the attack from police, and it included a description of the attacker.
Curtis said police characterized the attack as a "crime of opportunity" that was not "premeditated or planned out."
Baltimore police said they are not linking Tuesday's attack to a series of six unsolved rapes that shook Mount Vernon and neighboring communities in 2008. In that case, residents criticized police for not immediately publicizing the assaults.
But at Wednesday's news conference, police said they will compare Mason's DNA to evidence recovered three years ago, including from an attack that occurred in the same block of St. Paul Street.
Jobie Watson, who was waiting to be shown an apartment in the 1000 block of St. Paul St., said that news of the rape had shaken her conviction that moving into the city to be closer to her job as a part-time yoga instructor was a good idea.
"It does make me think twice about it," said Watson, who lives in Joppa. "It makes me a little nervous."
