A man raped one woman in Fairmount Park early Friday morning and tried to sexually assault a second victim who got away. In a chance encounter, the women met each other and then helped police nab the suspect, according to police sources and KYW Radio.
The first victim, a woman from Kensington, was picked up by the suspect, taken to an area in the park on Greenland Drive near the Strawberry Mansion bridge and raped at gunpoint. That was around 4 a.m. according to KYW's Al Novack.
The man went back into the Kensington neighborhood and picked up a second woman, took her to the very same area of the park and tried to sexually assault her two hours later. KYW Radio reports that woman got away and ran to a nearby shelter and called police.
At the shelter, the second victim met the first victim. Both women led police back to the crime scene where they found the suspect still in his car. Police took him into custody and were questioning the 24-year old man from West Philadelphia. They've towed his car, a Black Mercury, from the scene and investigators will scour it for evidence.
It's early in the investigation, but sources tell NBC Philadelphia these attacks do not appear to be connected to last month's rapes inside the park or to the Fairmount Park rapist.
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Last month two women joggers were raped in the park. The most recent of those assaults was also in the Strawberry Mansion section of the city, on the other side of the Schuylkill River off Edgely Drive. The other was in a completely different area of the park more than eight miles away in a parking lot near Forbidden Drive.
