BALTIMORE, Md. — A masked man with a knit hat dressed all in black and looking through the windows of businesses in Baltimore for easy prey.
He struck a business on North Howard Street on Monday just as it opened at 10 o’clock in the morning.
“It seemed like he was targeting women,” a nearby business owner who did not want to be identified told us, “My neighbor informed me that she had been attacked the day prior to me coming in. I thought that was awful scary to think that someone can attack somebody in broad daylight.”
Police have now identified the suspect as 23-year-old Deamontae Norris, and according to charging documents, he grabbed the female employee around her neck, stole six dollars from the cash register and then forced her into the basement.
He then threatened to pull out a gun and to kill her as he removed her shirt and began sexually assaulting her.
When a cell phone could be heard ringing upstairs, the suspect went upstairs to see if someone else had entered the store and his victim was able to escape through a back door.
“I heard that he had strangled her and then she was able to get loose and run out of another exit so I’m thankful she got away and he didn’t have a weapon,” the neighbor told us.
Police tied Norris to the attack through DNA evidence, which produced a match in their database from a rape charge dating back to when the suspect was just 17 years old.
They arrested him just 72 hours after the attack, and now he’s being held with no bond.
Investigators believe this may be the same man who assaulted another female employee at a business on st. paul street last month and they’re looking for ties to a third undisclosed crime.
“He’s attacked three businesses that were employed by women,” the neighbor said.
If you have any information, you can call Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7LOCKUP.
