Police arrest man over US stranglings
Source: Agencies |
January 19, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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A MAN recently released from prison and believed to have been wandering the streets and staying in abandoned homes was arrested on Monday night after being linked by DNA to the sexual assaults and strangling deaths of three women in a gritty, high-crime section of Philadelphia, police said.
Antonio Rodriguez, 21, was taken into custody on an unrelated arrest warrant after someone phoned in a tip, police said. The arrest came shortly after a news conference at which Captain James Clark said Rodriguez was being sought as a "strong" person of interest in the murders in the Kensington section, a few kilometers north of downtown.
The attacks, in what's called the Kensington Strangler case, had left the neighborhood shaken - and police fear outraged residents might take matters into their own hands.
Rodriguez, known in the area as Black, had not been charged with any crime in the stranglings case, and police had not even obtained an arrest warrant for him, Clark said. But the link made by state police in their convicted felon database was "a major break," he said.
Rodriguez, who was sought on an arrest warrant from a missed court appearance in an unrelated case police wouldn't discuss, was in custody on Monday night and couldn't be reached for comment.
Police investigating nine assaults in the area dating to early October said last month that through DNA they had linked the deaths of three women: Elaine Goldberg and Nicole Piacentini, both of Philadelphia, and Casey Mahoney, of East Stroudsburg, about 160 kilometers north of the city. The women, all in their 20s, had struggled with drug addiction.
Antonio Rodriguez, 21, was taken into custody on an unrelated arrest warrant after someone phoned in a tip, police said. The arrest came shortly after a news conference at which Captain James Clark said Rodriguez was being sought as a "strong" person of interest in the murders in the Kensington section, a few kilometers north of downtown.
The attacks, in what's called the Kensington Strangler case, had left the neighborhood shaken - and police fear outraged residents might take matters into their own hands.
Rodriguez, known in the area as Black, had not been charged with any crime in the stranglings case, and police had not even obtained an arrest warrant for him, Clark said. But the link made by state police in their convicted felon database was "a major break," he said.
Rodriguez, who was sought on an arrest warrant from a missed court appearance in an unrelated case police wouldn't discuss, was in custody on Monday night and couldn't be reached for comment.
Police investigating nine assaults in the area dating to early October said last month that through DNA they had linked the deaths of three women: Elaine Goldberg and Nicole Piacentini, both of Philadelphia, and Casey Mahoney, of East Stroudsburg, about 160 kilometers north of the city. The women, all in their 20s, had struggled with drug addiction.
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