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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DOUG H who wrote (308744)	10/15/2002 9:46:11 PM
From: PROLIFE	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 769670

This is what I am talkin about!! Congrats to this lady!! A pistol-packing woman accomplished with two bullets what Pittsburgh police had been attempting to do for days: post-gazette.com Arrest in East End sex assaults Man shot Thursday morning identified by 6 female victims Tuesday, October 15, 2002 By Jonathan D. Silver, Post-Gazette Staff Writer A pistol-packing woman accomplished with two bullets what Pittsburgh police had been attempting to do for days: to stop the man suspected of a string of sexual assaults in the city's East End. Police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr. announced yesterday that all six female assault victims had identified Daniel Wesley, 25, of Homewood, as the man who attacked them during a two-week rampage. Wesley was wounded early Thursday morning when an off-duty University of Pittsburgh security guard shot him twice in the abdomen. He remained in UPMC Presbyterian yesterday, where he was arraigned. Bond was set at $300,000 per case, meaning he would be required to post $1.8 million to secure his release. Police said Charmaine Dunbar, 42, fired her licensed .357-caliber revolver in self-defense on a Homewood street when Wesley came at her with a rifle, possibly intending, they said, for her to become a seventh victim. Although results have not yet come back from DNA testing that would conclusively link Wesley with the assaults -- police have retrieved DNA samples from the attacker in at least one case -- investigators felt confident enough to charge Wesley with 23 offenses, including two counts of rape and three counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. The victims, who ranged in age from 14 to 33, picked Wesley out of a photo array. "We believe that he's responsible for all of these," McNeilly said. "We were all deeply concerned ... We took this just as seriously as the shootings down in Washington, D.C." McNeilly's presence during an afternoon news conference at the Police Bureau's investigations branch in East Liberty underscored the gravity police accorded a case that left women in the East End on edge. For several nights last week, undercover officers fanned out through the eight- to 10-block area in which the serial stalker had been active, hoping to catch him. He had already struck six times, police revealed yesterday; until then, only five assaults had been mentioned. The newest to come to light occurred around 8 a.m. Oct. 4 in the 800 block of Mathews Way in East Liberty. Two of the assaults ended in rape, a third in forcing the victim to perform oral sex. The attacks had steadily grown more violent since they began Sept. 25. During the last one Oct. 8 at Rippey Street and Selma Way in East Liberty, the attacker put a gun to the victim's head, choked her until she passed out and then raped her. Some detectives were so zealous to catch the attacker that they pulled voluntary overtime shifts. Even Assistant Police Chief William Mullen joined Sgt. Edward Eckle of the sex assault squad on the street one night. Detectives had precious few leads to go on other than four composite images of a suspect that were based on interviews with the victims. The first public hint that police might be onto a suspect came Friday night, when the special detail of officers was abruptly canceled without explanation. A day earlier, hours after Wesley was shot, detectives had begun to stitch together similarities between the attack on Dunbar and the other six attacks in East Liberty, Garfield and Highland Park. In all the cases, the suspect came up on a female victim from behind. He would try to make conversation, albeit in unsettling ways. His height, weight, build and age were consistently described in the same terms. And he either made threats with a gun or showed a firearm. Police believe the attacker might have gotten wise to the undercover officers and shifted to a different part of the city, which led to Dunbar's encounter. Police said Dunbar ran into Wesley at 4:04 a.m. Thursday when she took her dog for a walk on North Murtland Avenue. A man approached from behind, pointed a rifle at her and told her to stand there while he shot her. Dunbar pleaded for her life and ran away, screaming for help. A police officer escorted her home and took a report. Dunbar went out about 90 minutes later for a walk. This time, she carried her gun. The same man came up behind her as she walked up a hill. At the top, he pulled a .22-caliber rifle from his pants, pointed it at her and asked, "How would you like me to shoot you?" Dunbar fired in response. By Thursday night, as Wesley was lying in the hospital under the fake name of Jerome or Jevone Prunty that he had given police, detectives had managed to link the rifle he was carrying with the weapon used in the Oct. 8 assault. That victim told police that the gun was definitely the same, pointing out a jagged part of the rifle where she said her attacker had struck her. Investigators found dried blood in that spot on the gun, though it was not known whether it was the victim's. Also, the victim told police her attacker said his name was Alfred. Detectives traced the stolen rifle back to its owner in East Liberty, whose home had been broken into. His name was Alfred. As of yesterday, detectives were still trying to determine Wesley's motive. He has been in trouble with the law before -- specifics were unavailable because courts were closed for Columbus Day -- but apparently not for sex-related offenses.