A Prince William County woman was raped by five men, police said, in an attack that a police spokesman described as “despicable.”
All five men, ranging in age from 17 to 24, have been charged with raping the 39-year-old victim.
Officer Nathan Probus said that the woman, who lives in Gainesville, went to the 5300 block of Chaffins Farm Court in Haymarket to visit several people she knows.
Police are still not sure whether the woman was drugged, Probus said. But she somehow became incapacitated, and when she woke up, she knew she had been assaulted. She went to a hospital.
Probus said that by talking to the victim and some of the suspects, investigators learned the names of five people who had all raped the victim on Oct. 23.
Pedro Agustin Orozco Rotela, 20, of Bristow was arrested the day after the attack.
On Oct. 28, three more people were arrested: Mohammed Hamza Al-Birmani, 18, who lives on the block where the woman was attacked; Mehran Salehzadeh, 24, of Manassas; and a 17-year-old whose name was not released because he is a juvenile.
Police caught the fifth wanted man, 21-year-old Aras Beyzadeh of Fairfax, on Wednesday and publicized the arrests for the first time the next day.
It is totally unacceptable that this behavior goes on in Prince William County, especially in what used to be the sleepy little village of Haymarket. It seems like just yesterday, rather than a couple years ago, that the Gainesville Supervisor gently chided Chairman Stewart for wanting to add 25 additional police officers to the force. Perhaps Supervisor Candland would like to rethink his upbraiding of the chairman after this hideous incident.
Obviously serious, violent crime has moved into the western part of the county. That’s too bad. Haymarket used to be a lovely, bucolic little town. Now there are traffic jams, strip malls and panhandlers at the traffic lights. These things can’t be helping property values.
This incident should also serve as serious warning to people who are living with a false sense of security. I live in what we called ground zero back around the time of the financial crash and immigration hoopla. I know that some people got all hysterical about what was going on here. Perhaps those further west ought not look so disparagingly at little old Sudley. I feel that I live in a very safe neighborhood. Perhaps I will start being more careful about locking MY own doors.
Meanwhile, it sounds like there are some new thugs in town. I am all for hiring as many new cops as we can to make sure that our county residents are safe. I certainly wouldn’t laugh at the Chairman’s efforts to increase the number of police on the force.
Moon,
I agree that having additional police officers engaged in proactive community policing is a good thing, and considering the explosive population growth in Western PWC, adding officers isn’t a matter of fiscal policy, it’s a matter of public-safety. If not 25, then how about 20? 20 too much? Ok, how about 15? Safer communities are a good thing.
But there’s a lot more happening here than the news story, or your commentary on it, alludes to. First, understand that Policing is more “reactive” than “pro-active”. Crime rates, overall are declining, but if the FBI director is to be believed (and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be), we may be looking at a rise in crime nationally, as the administration’s reaction to some isolated and sensationalized events, and the rise of certain left-wing anti-law enforcement groups, has had a chilling effect on the LEO community, and has emboldened criminals.
However, I think there is much, much more to this story, and this is just the proverbial “tip of the iceberg”.
Every time there is a big incident, cops are pulled off their normal jobs. Each of these criminals almost represents a separate crime because each has to be treated as an individual case. Haymarket and Gainesville also are fairly remote areas. The response time isn’t going to be as fast as say Westgate.
While the FBI director may have said that crime is on a decline (which is a good thing) I am not so sure it really is in Prince William County simply because it is a rapidly growing area. I get the daily incident reports and have noticed the shift in crime. I always see that something is happening in Bristow or Gainesville. Crime seems to follow populations. times. Both situations need more cops. In Woodbridge, for police visibility. In If nothing else, perhaps there is more to steal.
Then there is the type of crime. That might be the tip of the proverbial iceberg. I know elena was pretty shocked when I called her about a gang rape in Haymarket. Different parts of the county have different police needs. Somewhere in the older part of Woodbridge might have an issue with kids and car hopping. In Haymarket, the problem might be response time. In Haymarket, just having enough people to get to someone’s house in a timely fashion is an issue.
I also want to know about these criminals in particular. Is this gang behavior? If it is, do we have new gangs or was this an isolated incident? The crime scene appeared to be in a fairly affluent area. Again, not typical of a gang scene. There is more to this story than we are being told in the WaPo.
When Kubrick made “A Clockwork Orange” in the 1970s it shocked everyone for its brutality and foretelling a dystopian future no one at the time thought would ever happen. We’re there now, and beyond. Regrettably, the vision Kubrick and Clarke gave us in “2001” isn’t remotely here. 2001 was marked by other evil people committing horrendous deeds rather than leaps forward in science and space exploration.
So much for the safety and security of living in a gated community.
I very much doubt that more police officers would have prevented this unfortunate event. Not blaming the victim but she willingly went over to the house where she was likely drugged and taken advantage of. Nothing can prevent that from happening other than choosing her friends more wisely. And in a gated community, no less. Do PO’s even patrol in gated communities?
I doubt if more police would have prevented the unfortunate situation either. However, when incidents like this happen, someone has to process it. Someone has to solve the crime, in this case, times 5. Who fills in for those solving the crime? It short changes the community if you are short of officers.
My point really is, you can live in a gated community or think you have moved away from high crime areas, and still be impacted by these types of things. No one is immune. Meanwhile, we are all down X number of officers while this heinous crime is solved and adjudicated.
Perhaps I am wrong, but a couple years ago when I first remember the chairman being trivialized because of his desire to add cops, but I got the distinct impression that there was a touch of elitism…as in…we don’t need additional cops here in the western end. No it wasn’t said but it was the attitude that was emitted.
I got the incident reports so I knew it was only a matter of time before that area of the county got like the rest of us.
While I am telling Haymarket how to live its life, I might as well say it…if you are going west on 55, crossing 15, those lanes need some serious adjustment. Both the thru lanes need to be thru lanes. There is a great bottle neck forming right in that area.
@Pat.Herve
After letting this story settle somewhat, I am wondering if the victim might be a little more innocent than we think. Looking at the rapists, does anyone see a common denominator other than male?
I hope these weren’t trusted males who took advantage of a cloistered woman. I have read about those cases in other localities…not in this country.
There is a lot more to this story than has come out in the news. We aren’t talking about a poor area. We aren’t talking about a party age woman. We aren’t talking about perps who should be dealing with drugs and alcohol. What is missing here?
Any time there are rapists in the community in this proportion, I think we need to start asking questions. I have no problem asking questions many people don’t want to ask. My proclivities along these lines date back to Nov. 1978.
“I have no problem asking questions many people don’t want to ask. My proclivities along these lines date back to Nov. 1978.”
And I remember the 1983 rape that occurred in Big Dan’s Bar in New Bedford MA, on a Sunday evening, on a pool table, when other patrons were present, many cheering. Jodie Foster starred as the victim in a Hollywood dramatization of the crime. What they didn’t say in the movie was there was also a common denominator involved.
@Steve Thomas
Yes the men at Big Dan’s Bar did happen to all be Portuguese immigrants. Why is that a factor? My guess is that if you look at most gang rapes you do not see a mix of ethnicities in that “gang”. It sounds like you think most gang rapes are committed by immigrants. How about I search the news across the US and see what other kind of people commit gang rapes? Not quite sure what ridiculous point you are getting at, but I would suggest that the most thing all the people who commit gang rapes have in common is that they are men. Perhaps we should indict all men?
@Watching
Your guess would be wrong, and you are predictably jumping to conclusions, and missing the point. These were members of an insular community. They blamed the victim, set up defense funds for the accused, and after they were found guilty, drove the woma, ALSO A MEMBER OF THAT SAME COMMUNITY, out of town.
“My guess is that if you look at most gang rapes you do not see a mix of ethnicities in that “gang”.”
Instead of offerring us your “guesses” perhaps you might actually do a bit of research, and form a fact-based argument, or maybe change your psudenym form “Watching” to “Guessing”.
But, since you are jumping to conclusions, it’s only fair that I do so, as well, right? My “guess” is you believe that most gang rapes are committed by white college fraternity members. But I am honest enough not to put words in your mouth, unlike you.
“but I would suggest that the most thing all the people who commit gang rapes have in common is that they are men. Perhaps we should indict all men?”
Perpatrators of crimes like these are not men. They are animals. Indict them. Convict them. Lock them away forever. The Big Dan’s rapists each served an average of 6.5 years. The victim? She died in a car wreck in Florida, where she lived after her “community” drove her from her home in MA.
@Steve Thomas
So what was that common denominator, that they were from the same insular community? What are you going to do, indict any insular community? What exactly were you inferring about the past one and this one? What exactly were the communities? Help me out, I don’t want to guess. I am missing your point, spell it out.
Watching, please go up to Moon’s comment #8. Then go read the story again. Then read what I wrote about the Big Dan’s gang rape, and then take a deep breath.
My point is, gang rapes don’t happen like stranger rapes. The perpetrators are likely to be part of a “community” and their victims are also likely to be part of that same “community”. As Moon also noted, “crime follows communities”. There is just as much a link between the victim and the attackers, as there is between the attackers…or as Moon puts it “a common denominator”. Did I say Portuguese immigrants tend to be gang rapists? No, that’s just the way you read it. What I said was there was a “common denominator” in the Big Dan’s gang rape. There was, in that all involved, be they perpetrator, victim, or witness, were members of the Portuguese community. An insular community. Whether they be military, ethnic, religious, college, when something like this happens, the likelihood of the victim and the perpetrators, not to mention witnesses will be of the same insular community is high. Moon asked a question about the victim, and then noted there appeared to be a common link between the perpetrators. She gets it. Apparently you don’t.
@Steve Thomas
My point is, I believe if all the men had been white males, we never would have begun the discussion of “community.” If I search my own heart, that term is a way to group people together and sometimes condemn them all. It’s easy to look at men who look different than me and assume they don’t hold the same beliefs or morals. I know that I sometimes do that and I was inferring that perhaps you were doing the same thing. If you weren’t I apologize. I reacted so poorly because so many problems begin because we lump people together and make judgments on them all.
I think gang rape in and of itself is fairly unique in PWC. It’s not something that happens around here. The fact that it happened in Haymarket (ok, I will confess, if someone told me that there was a gang rape in PWC I would immediately mentally transport to Woodbridge) makes it even more unique. When I look at the last names, I mentally transport overseas and think about the women I have read about in far reaching places who have been gang raped by people in their small towns, etc. However, I could easily remark if I was reading a story in the Washington post about something happening in Iraq or Afghanistan. But I can’t because I am reading about Haymarket.
However, it doesn’t sound like this was a random act. I worry about the victim and wonder if she is the only one. How many women have been forced into silence because of a closed “community” whether by nationality, family, or campus. Community is often nothing more than “circle of friends”, home town or even extended family. It could be your parrish or your neighbhorhood block.
I suggest we all start with calling them rapists. I also give them a little less respect than I would say…politicians, or any other collective.
@Watching
“My point is, I believe if all the men had been white males, we never would have begun the discussion of “community”
Yeah…I don’t think this is correct. Had they been white males, say members of a college fraternity, or a lacrosse team, or the military, there would be a major discussion about “community”…and it would be driven by the media, all over social media, and blogs like this one. I offer the threads and comments on this blog, regarding the jackie Coakley hoax at UVA, as proof of my assertion.
Guilty. I was all over that one like…well…never mind. But yea, I was on the UVA hoax like a dog with a bone. I was also fairly tenacious about Hannah Green where we had multiple victims tracing to one rapist, rather than one victim and multiple rapists.
@Moon-howler
Moon,
These sorts of things happen much more than you think in PWC, Fairfax, and Loudoun. The reasons we don’t hear more often about them is the justice system has chosen a strategy of trying individuals separately. You may hear about 4 rape trials and never realize the victim was the same in all four cases, due to victim shield laws.
I did not know that this behavior was not that uncommon. I know it happens with drunken young men in fraternities sometimes. I had that happen to a friend while I was in college. But we aren’t living in the middle of fraternity row, nor are we living in Afghanistan where rape has been reportedly used as a weapon of war.
Maybe the press needs to step up to the plate and give us more information. I don’t like rape being swept up under the carpet. This happened here back in 1978 when a 3 year old child was abducted and raped. The court system went all code secret and tried to keep the community, in this case, the Irongate community and the greater Manassas area, from learning the truth about the situation. Irongate a lot safer community than it is nowadays. The secrecy was supposedly to protect the rapist because he was age 16.
I know first hand about how damaging the actions of the court can be. One of the judges actually put the word out that I was a vigilante bitch. LOL. Yup. And I was his worst nightmare. I turned my kitchen into command central and gave press releases daily, fighting to have this creepy, dangerous kid removed from the neighborhood. (translation: put in jail) But I digress….
I left off, I am glad there is more attention paid to victim shield laws. Shielding the victim wasn’t a big priority back in the Irongate rape days. The emphasis by the judge was protecting the perp because he was a special needs minor. That included his name, where he went to school, his parents etc. He was released back into the neighborhood to his dysfunctional parents and allowed to wander again. He continued to do what he did…several more times. I am not sure where he is now. Hopefully, locked away so he cant harm kids.
Let me repeat…the victim was a 3 year old child. More regard was shown the perp than the victim.