Accused Rapist Beaten By Crowd In Detroit After Police Fail To Respond

An accused rapist was beaten by a crowd of vigilantes in Detroit who grew angry that police didn’t seem to be responding to the case.

Community members in the Hubbard Farms neighborhood in Detroit had grown angry that police didn’t seem interested in pursuing the case of a 15-year-old girl with Down Syndrome who was forcible raped by another local man.

The incident took place close to a month ago, but police were just getting around to sending in the girl’s rape kit for analysis. The 15-year-old says the man, who lives in the neighborhood and suffers from some kind of mental illness, accosted her while she was walking to work.

The girl said the man brought her back to his apartment, where he raped her.

But it took police seven hours to take a rape kit at the hospital, and another five days before they interviewed the girl with Down Syndrome. Three weeks later they sent to rape kit to the Michigan State Police Crime Lab.

“That’s just not acceptable,” said Megan Herres, a friend of the girl and her family. “DPD, we want to see an effort toward sexual assaults of minors. It’s not good to live in a community where people don’t feel safe.”

In the meantime, members of the neighborhood put up flyers warning people to stay from the man.

On Thursday tensions in the neighborhood boiled over, and a group of people attacked the accused rapist with a baseball bat, putting him in the hospital. Herres said it never would have come to that if police had only responded in time.

The Wayne County Prosecutor’s office told 7 Action News that the Detroit Police Department is still collecting evidence against the accused rapist who was beaten Thursday. They have not yet determined if charges will be brought up in the rape case.