COLUMBUS, Ohio — A man is in custody and charged following a reported rape and robbery that happened Saturday morning, according to documents filed in Franklin County Municipal Court.
Columbus police said they responded to the area of West 9th Avenue and High Street around 5:10 a.m. on a report of a rape crime and arrested the suspect, 20-year-old Darrell Rodgers, near the scene.
In an affidavit filed with the court, police said a 24-year-old woman told a detective she was held against her will at gunpoint and Rodgers told her to hand over all of her belongings and perform sex acts with him.
According to the affidavit, police said they interviewed Rodgers and he admitted to the sex acts but said the woman asked him to have sex with her.
Rodgers had a silver B.B. gun with him when he was arrested, police said.
He is charged first-degree felony counts of rape, kidnapping and aggravated robbery.
He will be arraigned Monday morning. The police report lists his address as “streets of Columbus.”
A friend of the victim told 10TV News that the reported rape may have happened elsewhere but that the woman ran to an apartment complex near 9th and High Street afterwards in a panic seeking help.
"It's gruesome. Obviously, it's shocking — you never think it's going to be you — it's always happening somewhere else. When something so gruesome happens so close to you… it's really unsettling and makes you concerned for the future,” said Michael Katz, an Ohio State senior who lives in the apartment complex where police responded.
Katz said he was asleep when police arrived and did not hear a commotion. Other tenants told 10TV off-camera that police blocked off the area with crime tape while they investigated.