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Serial rape suspect arrested in Detroit

Posted at 4:25 PM, Jan 08, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-08 17:42:22-05

A serial rape suspect on the city's east side has been arrested.

We're told he was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Apprehension team less than two hours after Detroit police released his photo and name. 

Police released the photo of 18-year-old Darian Winfield just before 3 p.m. He was arrested in his vehicle as he was leaving his home in the 5900 block of Harrell.

Police believe as many as four rape cases on Detroit's east side may be connected to Winfield. The most recent attack took place on Thursday. All of the incidents have involved a black man breaking into the homes of black women between the hours of midnight and 8 a.m.

A sketch was released on Thursday in connection to an attempted rape and stabbing that took place last month on Radnor Street. In that case, a man entered a home through a window while a woman slept. She was critically injured after the rape attempt and stabbing.

The victim was a 17-year old girl, according to her brother. He tells us the family never heard any noise or indication the suspect was inside the house. She was attacked with some sort of weapon, and was bleeding from the head, before she was rushed to a nearby hospital.

Police say there another attack just eight days before on Radnor, by a man fitting the same description.

Police say the man was armed with a kitchen knife in the Radnor Street attack. They described the suspect as a black male between the ages of 17 and 23. They say he was 5'8", 135 to 140 pounds. He is described as having a small build, dark complexion, a light fuzzy mustache and a piercing in his right nostril. Police say he had corn row hair.

On Thursday, police in Detroit said the rape cases may be related to a December case in which a woman was slashed by an attacker in Grosse Pointe Park .

In the Grosse Pointe Park case, police said a man severely slashed a woman and then fled on foot into Detroit. The victim said she believed the man had followed her. That knife attack happened in the area of Cadieux and Charlevoix, one block southwest of Mack Ave.

Grosse Pointe Park police say they are investigating the possibility that Winfield is a suspect in the attack, but said the crimes were different.

At the time, the suspect in the slashing was described as a black male in his early 20s, about 6'1" to 6'2" tall with a very thin build.

Police also believe the man to be a suspect in an attack on Haverville Street in Detroit. They say the man has been armed and they say he is attacking women in the fifth police precinct. They warn women to make sure doors and windows are locked.