Police Arrest Accused Serial Teen Rapist

Police arrested a man who allegedly raped four girls in his own neighborhood.

Antuane Brown, 22, was taken in for questioning around 3 a.m. Wednesday. Police on the scene didn't immediately call him a suspect but did say that they were talking to him about the crimes and that he was considered a person of interest.

Later in the morning Brown was officially charged.

NBC10 was the only station there as Philadelphia Police served a search warrant overnight at a home on the 1100 block of Price Street in the same Germantown neighborhood where the assaults occurred. The same block was even the scene of one attack.

Police also took a mountain bike, like the one seen on surveillance video in at least one of the attacks, and other evidence from the scene.

A $2,500 reward was offered by the Citizens Crime Commission in the series of attacks against girls as young as 12 years old.

Brown is accused of attacking four young women in his neighborhood.

On March 19, he allegedly raped a 12-year-old girl who was waiting for her school bus on the 1100 block of Price Street. On March 23, police say he raped a 17-year-old girl on the 900 block of Chelten Avenue. Police say he was armed with a gun during both assaults.

On May 19, police say Brown was riding on a mountain bike and spotted a 15-year-old girl walking on the 6000 block of Wister Street from a friend’s house. As the girl walked past an alley, he allegedly approached her, took out a gun and told her not to look at him. He then allegedly forced her into an alley where he sexually assaulted her. He then fled north on Wister Street, according to investigators. Police say they reviewed surveillance video of Brown riding the bike.

Finally, on Sunday, police say Brown sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl at gunpoint on the 1100 block of E. Chelten when he forced the girl into a recreation center.

Police say he was wearing a mask and a hooded sweatshirt during every assault.

After his arrest, Brown's family maintained his innocence.

"I'm sure he's innocent," said his mother, Tina Brown. "I don't have anything else to say."

"He wouldn't do anything like that," said his sister, Alexis Brown. "They only reason they took him is because of the bike."

Investigators are currently analyzing DNA retrieved from Brown.

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