WASHINGTON – A man walking along the Northwest portion of the District of Columbia was reportedly kidnapped at gunpoint, forced into a van and then taken to another location where he was gang-raped by a group of men, the Metropolitan Police report.
This represents the second time in nine months that a man has been forced into a vehicle and then sexually assaulted by multiple armed men, authorities said according to MyFox DC.
According to police and the news station, the unidentified victim was walking along 14th street when he was ambushed by a suspect brandishing a firearm and forced into the van on Friday. The man told police that he was then sexually assaulted and described one of the assailants as 6-foot-1 Hispanic man in his twenties. The man was wearing orange shorts and gray sweatpants, police said.
According to MyFox DC:
“It represents a change in what’s going on out here on the streets that we have a group of people who are specifically looking to target, kidnap and sexually assault men. That is a very, very profound event and it’s a change in what we’re used to investigating,” said Delroy Burton, President of the D.C. Police Union.
“It changes the game as to who needs to be cautious — outside of the correctional facility setting — about sexual assault,” said Burton. “I think before men didn’t even think of the possibility — walking up and down the street — and had to be guarded like we teach women to be guarded, but now that is a possibility.”
The first such harrowing incident of this nature occurred was even scarier because it happened in broad daylight. On December 2014, a man walking in Southeast around 10 a.m. was reportedly kidnapped by a van full of four men with guns. Police say the suspects drove the victim to another location and raped him, MyFox DC reports.
Police are struggling to come up with a motive to such heinous acts of sexual violence. They are not sure if these horrifying acts are gang initiations or simply new sexual predatory behavior.
Authorities are asking the public with any information to call 202-727-9099.
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