Police have charged a 22-year-old man with several felonies, including multiple counts of rape, in a series of attacks on women in North Little Rock earlier this year, according to the city's Police Department.
David Lee Jones, 22, was arrested early Saturday on a warrant related to the rape of a woman last week, according to a statement from the North Little Rock Police Department. He was arrested at a Motel 6 located at 4100 E. McCain Blvd., police said.
Jones, who faces charges of rape, kidnapping, aggravated robbery and aggravated assault in connection with last week's attack, was charged Monday in three other cases, including the rape of a woman behind a dumpster and the assault of a woman on a North Little Rock jogging trail, according to the statement.
The arrest was part of a "joint effort" from North Little Rock police, the FBI, the state Crime Laboratory and the Eastern Arkansas Fugitive Task Force of the U.S. Marshals Service, the statement said.
"It's been something that we've been investigating for a while," said Sgt. Brian Dedrick, a North Little Rock police spokesman.
The first incident occurred March 25, when two women were attacked in the parking lot of a shopping mall in North Little Rock, according to the department statement.
A woman told police that an unknown man approached her and her friend before he grabbed her by the head, according to an arrest report.
The woman said the man "pressed an object to her head and said he would shoot them," according to the report. Jones faces two charges of terroristic threatening, one count of breaking and entering and one count of third-degree assault in the case, the report said.
Jones was also charged in the rape of a woman on April 11, according to the statement. The woman told police she was assaulted by a man while walking home from work, according to the report.
Jones told police he took an unknown woman behind a dumpster on Allen Street and stuck his genitalia in her mouth, according to the report.
The woman said the man "placed [an] object to her back and implied it was a gun," according to the report. The woman also told police the man took her cellphone and wallet, the report said. Jones has been charged with rape, aggravated robbery and terroristic threatening in this case.
Jones also admitted to his involvement in another case on April 16, where a woman was attacked while on the Five Mile Creek Trail, the statement said.
According to the arrest report, Jones admitted to attacking a woman on the jogging trail. The woman told police that the assailant said he had a gun and threatened to kill her, according to the report.
The man hit the woman in the face several times, causing bruising, the report said. The attack injured her mouth and head, and the woman was treated at a hospital for the injuries, police said. Jones faces one count of terroristic threatening and second-degree battery, according to the arrest report.
North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith said he was relieved when he heard the news of the arrest.
"We got the bad guy off the street now," he said, mentioning he felt a sense of pride in investigators' work on the case.
Smith also thanked the women for contacting police and working with investigators to put the person behind bars.
Jones was listed on Pulaski County jail's inmate roster Monday night. A report said he was held without bail.
Metro on 06/13/2017