Prince William County, Va. — Aaron H. Thomas, the man police have dubbed the East Coast Rapist, arrived in Prince William County today to face charges of rape in a case dating back to Halloween 2009.
Thomas was extradited from Connecticut, where he was arrested at his home in New Haven in March.
A man was robbed while inside a gym in Woodbridge. Police were called to Powerhouse Gym on Golansky Boulevard, off Smoketown Road, at 7:27 p.m. Saturday after a two men got into an argument and a cell phone was stolen.
Police said the 20-year-old victim was approached by another man whom he knew, and an argument ensued. The man pushed the victim, grabbed his cell phone valued at $600 and fled the gym, said police.
Police were called for a robbery at a shoe store inside Potomac Mills mall about 2:20 p.m. Friday. A man walked into a store, grabbed a pair of shoes valued at $90, and then fled, police said.
Security guards confronted the man, but were pushed away by him. Police officers later found the man after a brief foot pursuit and arrested him.
At 10:43 a.m. Wedneseday, a Woodbridge man told police two men walked into the Check into Cash location at 12367 Dillingham Square in Lake Ridge where one pulled out a gun and struck the man in the head, said police.
The men took an undisclosed amount of cash and fled through the back door.
Fairfax County, Va. — There are new photos of a woman who robbed a bank in Springfield this week, which was just one incident in a string of cases that has captured the attention of Northern Virginia residents.
The woman in the surveillance photos is 26-year-old Stephanie Lynn Schwab, of the Manassas area, police said. The photos were taken inside a BB&T Bank branch in Springfield that was robbed about 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Officers were called to 14797 Darbydale Avenue at 6:20 p.m. Monday where the store clerk told them about the robbery.
The clerk described the man was black, between 18 and 25-years-old, 5 feet 9 inches tall, 160 pounds with a thin build, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt under a red and white jersey, jeans, gloves and mask. No one was injured.
The 29-year-old victim from Dumfries had been inside the K2 nightclub at Featherstone Plaza in on U.S. 1 in Woodbridge on Saturday night and had seen a man that she knew, said a Prince William police spokesman. Later that night as the woman was walking to her car, the man she saw inside the club was standing next to her vehicle. He pulled her closed and then assaulted her, said police.
The victim was able to flee and contact police.
Stafford County, Va. — A series of break-ins at have kept law enforcement officers in Stafford County busy.
Two homes were broken into Monday along Hollywood Farm Road in south Stafford. A sheriff’s deputy was called to a home in the 100 block of Hollywood Farms Road about 4 p.m. where a house had it doors cracked and kicked open, was ransacked and a small jar of change and some medications taken.
A the two men, along with another, were riding inside a Chevrolet Impala that was being pursued by police when the car pulled into a rest stop along Interstate 95 north in Dale City, weaved through the parking lot and then made an attempt to get back onto the highway. As they did, a tractor trailer clobbered the car trapping one person while the other two escaped.
After a few hours of searching a wooded area near the rest stop, Virginia State Police called off their search about 7 p.m. Friday, said VSP spokeswoman Corinne Geller.
A man walked into Famous Footwear in the 1100 block of Stafford Marketplace just off Va. 610 in North Stafford about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, brandished a small handgun and demanded the clerk open the register, said Stafford sheriff’s spokesman Bill Kennedy.
The clerk opened the register and the man reached in and pulled out several large bills and fled the scene, said Kennedy.
