APD officials join residents for community-organized Va-Hi canvas

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APD personnel — including Maj. Keith Meadows of the Major Crimes Unit, Homicide Commander Lt. Paul Guerrucci, Special Victims Unit Commander Lt. Stacie Gibbs and Community Affairs Liaison Alice Johnson — have hopped aboard the grassroots effort to catch a rapist in Virginia-Highland.

The department announced today that those officers and others will join neighbors as they flier and “get the word out” about the suspect in a Dec. 26 sexual assault on Rosedale Road.

Maj. Meadows says:
“We believe it’s important that we partner with the community in making sure there’s no rest for people who would prey on innocent citizens in our community. Chief Turner often says we cannot fight crime alone, and this is a prime example of how we can get out there and fight crime together.”

The canvas was planned by Old Fourth Ward resident Jinean Robinson who believes she encountered the rapist just days before the Rosedale Road attack. Robinson was cleaning her apartment and had just taken the trash out, when she discovered a man in her bathroom peering into her shower. Similarly, in the Rosedale Road attack, the victim was moving her belongings in — and left the door open, as such — when she found the man standing inside her home.

A press release from police stresses that they’ve not made a connection between the incidents.

Police and residents are meeting at 2 p.m. (so, like, now) in the CVS parking lot on N. Highland Ave.