NORFOLK, Va. - A woman told police a man pretended to be a cop before sexually assaulting her, according to court documents.
Norfolk Police said the 24-year-old victim called them on February 20 from Poplar Hall Park after the alleged attack.
Court records indicate the suspect allegedly made contact with the victim through a texting application about date and that he located the victim’s number through the website Backpage.
The victim said he picked her up on the 400 block of Military Highway around 2 p.m. and drove her to the park, which is located right across the street.
They state she told authorities the suspect informed her that he was a cop and there were two other cops back in the parking lot where he picked her up.
Records indicate she said he told her she had two options: go to jail or do what he told her.
When she said she didn’t believe he was a cop, she claimed he pulled out a gun from the center console of the car and said he would shoot her if she didn’t obey him, the records say.
He allegedly sexually assaulted her and then made her get out of the car and walk to a clearing in the back of the park before sexually assaulting her again.
The records say he told the victim he needed to get something from the car but took off instead.
“We have so many different impostors out there, people using deception to take advantage of other people, so we have to be very careful,” said Richard James, a former investigator and current head of the Criminal Justice department at Tidewater Community College.
James said sexual predators go online to look for victims and the public needs to use extreme precaution when meeting up with someone they met online.
No one has been arrested in this case.
Police ask anyone with information about this incident to call the Norfolk Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.
