Posted on 08/25/2007 3:50:10 PM PDT by wesley_windam-price
Although police say as many as 10 people witnessed a sexual assault in a St. Paul hallway, the suspect said he has no memory of what happened.
Rage Ibrahim, 25, said he blacked out from drinking too much alcohol. But he said he wouldn't have committed rape.
"I'm so upset because of the situation I'm in," Ibrahim said, crying as he headed to the Ramsey County jail on Thursday to turn himself in. "I've got a mom, I've got a sister. I wouldn't rape anyone."
Surveillance video from a Highwood-area apartment hallway makes it clear that a sexual assault happened Tuesday, St. Paul police Cmdr. Shari Gray said.
Prosecutors charged Ibrahim, of St. Paul, on Thursday with first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct.
From five to 10 people peeked out of their apartment doors to see what was happening. Some started walking down the hallway but retreated after witnessing the assault, Gray said, based on surveillance video she saw. None stopped the assault, she said.
The "bystander effect" might explain why people didn't help, psychologists say. Members of groups who witness a crime, versus one or two individuals, are less likely to intervene, because they don't feel individually responsible for what's happening, studies have found.
The culture of many people who live in the apartment building also could have influenced witnesses' behavior, said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul. A large number of Afton View Advertisement apartment residents are Somalis, who tend to mistrust and fear the police, Jamal said.
"The only system they know (from Somalia) is a military, totalitarian government that tortures and executes people," he said. "Their understanding is a system that oppresses and that kills. People have no rights. They are used to keeping quiet and not saying anything."
The surveillance video shows the 26-year-old victim lying in the second-floor hallway at 371 S. Winthrop St. as early as 1:20 a.m. Tuesday, according to the criminal complaint.
At one point, the woman knocked on a door, yelling for the occupants to call police. A man inside told police he didn't open the door or look out, though he said he called police. Police found no record of the call, according to an affidavit for a search warrant filed in Ramsey County District Court.
Someone called 911 at 2:43 a.m. and reported two drunken people in the hallway. As a result, police classified the call as a disturbance and assigned it the department's lowest priority number for response.
Officers arrived at 3:25 a.m. and found Ibrahim and the woman in the hallway.
If police had known a violent crime was in progress, the call would have been classified as a Priority 2, rather than a Priority 4, said Tom Walsh, a police spokesman. Priority 1 is reserved for reports of officers down, he said.
Between midnight and 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, there were 29 calls for police service in the Eastern District, where the assault happened, Walsh said. Two were classified as Priority 2, nine as Priority 3 and 18 as Priority 4, he said.
During the same period, there were 13 officers in nine police squads working in the district, Walsh said. An officer might respond to a call and find nothing there, or spend half his or her shift on one call, he said.
When police arrived, they found Ibrahim and the woman in the hallway, both half-dressed and with scratches on their faces, the criminal complaint said. Officers overheard the woman say she just wanted to die.
According to the complaint:
Ibrahim told police they were drunk and the woman was his girlfriend. Gray said the two were not boyfriend and girlfriend.
The woman told police Ibrahim had drugged and raped her. She said she had gone to a friend's apartment and that a man she knew by the nickname Gomay was there. Ibrahim later told police he is known as Gomay.
After drinking during the evening, the woman said, she began to leave. Gomay tried to stop her by repeatedly punching and slapping her as he attempted to rape her. She said Gomay was trying to kill her.
Paramedics took the woman to Regions Hospital in St. Paul for a sexual assault exam, which found semen on her body. In addition, the woman suffered numerous scratches, cuts and bruises on her legs, face and shoulder.
Police arrested Ibrahim at the scene. He was held in the jail until early Thursday, then released when the 48-hour window prosecutors had to charge him expired. Prosecutors charged him later in the morning, and an arrest warrant was issued. Ibrahim turned himself in early Thursday evening.
Ibrahim, whose first name, Rage, is pronounced "Rah-gay," said a friend introduced him to the woman about a year ago. They lost touch until recently, he said.
He and a friend picked up the woman Monday night and went to the friend's Winthrop Street apartment, he said. Ibrahim, who said he cleans planes for a living, said he and the woman drank two bottles of gin between them.
Despite the woman's contention Ibrahim drugged her, he said he "absolutely" had not.
Ibrahim's friend tried to touch the woman, Ibrahim said. The woman told Ibrahim she was uncomfortable being there and wanted to leave, he said.
"I told her, 'I'm too drunk to drive, and you're too drunk to drive,' " he said. Ibrahim said he suggested they stay there for the night, and offered to call a taxicab or friends to pick her up.
The woman took Ibrahim's car keys and wouldn't give them back when he asked, he said. He said he grabbed her hand to try to get them back and that she scratched him on the lip, arm and "everywhere."
"That's when I got mad," Ibrahim said. He said he slapped the woman on the face, something he normally wouldn't have done. "After that, the next thing I know is I was in the jail."
Ibrahim had a gauze pad on his forehead Thursday, under which were scrapes that he said he got from the police. Walsh said there was no struggle between Ibrahim and police.
Is yo gonna believes me or yo lyin eyes?
Swedish?
What sorry a$$ people these are! I would never be able to sleep at night!
“The only system they know (from Somalia) is a military, totalitarian government that tortures and executes people,” he said. “Their understanding is a system that oppresses and that kills. People have no rights. They are used to keeping quiet and not saying anything.”
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So if they think all countries are like that, why did they bother coming here?
Actually they do know this country is not like that; the Somalis have got the welfare system figured out pretty well.
Mrs VS
Ah, the old ‘alcohol made me do it’ defense ....
??? Is a priority one a special on donuts and coffee at the local Dunkin' ? And I call multi-culti BS on the culture of the neighbors. If there were here legally, they would know they left all that police state nonsense behind. Assimilate and pound all assailants into the dirt. Flight 93 taught us "sheeple no more!"
Ibrahim, Elvira Arellano...our national security system at work.
Just pack them all up and send em home until they learn the meaning of civilzation.
So, because one has a sister and a mother one wouldn’t commit rape. Wow, what a defense.
Rage Ibrahim... RAGE... who but TROP names their spawn Rage?
Rape cases in Sweden by Muslims have grown at an alarming rate. Perhaps Ibrahim was testing the water and see if he could get away with it here. (Probably will.)
I'm not quite sure how to take that statement.
oh lordy, THAT interpretation had not occurred to me
Lol! My very thought!
What is the witnesses excuse for being cowards? Maybe if a few of them had a couple drinks, they might've had the guts to do something.
It’s more than “just” cowardice when they wouldn’t even make a phone call from behind their closed doors. They just didn’t care.
Listen to any lefty and they'll say the USA fits that description.
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