Otjomuise community swoops on rape suspect

THE combined efforts of the Otjomuise community on Saturday resulted in the capture of an attempted rape suspect, who almost got away by hiding inside a municipal rubbish bin.

The community was alerted to the alleged incident just before noon on Saturday, when a distraught 19-year-old girl and her parents stormed into a pub in the vicinity of Beijing Street, looking for a young man she said had tried to rape her in a nearby riverbed.The girl, a resident of the neighbouring Khomasdal suburb, had apparently been on an errand when the suspect allegedly pounced on her.According to Reinhard Jagger, manager of Tia Protection Services which is responsible for guarding a number of establishments in the area, the girl spotted the suspect in the shebeen.’She pointed at him standing at the counter of a shebeen, and he turned around. As soon as he saw her he dropped the cooldrink he had just bought and started running,’ Jagger said.A number of people starting giving chase, Jagger said, and one man pulled out a pistol, firing a number of warning shots to no avail.The man then shot at the suspect, hitting him in the upper arm.The suspect still managed to get away, however.The community then called the City Police and the girl reported the attempted rape case.A while later a woman who lives in the area opened her rubbish bin to throw away some garden refuse.To her surprise, the bleeding suspect jumped from the bin and tried to run away.’But he was surrounded by a few of the women who grabbed him and held him until the Police returned,’ Jagger said yesterday.Police at the Wanaheda Police Station confirmed that the suspect had been arrested and held there before appearing in the Katutura Magistrate’s Court yesterday.