By Seth Daniel
A man arrested and charged with a horrendous kidnapping and rape of two women in their home last week was quickly identified and arrested at the Pine Street Inn on Tuesday, Oct. 11, with a major assist from the shelter.
Sgt. Luke Taxter of Area D-4 told the Old Dover Neighborhood Association on Tuesday that Ronald Ronald Brown, 52, was arrested in the area at the Pine Street Inn Oct. 11. He has been charged and arraigned for rape and sexual assault charges that he allegedly perpetrated around 4 a.m. on Oct. 11 when he broke in the back window of a Clarendon Street and Columbus Avenue home and committed the crime against two women who were sleeping.
“We didn’t get the call for the incident until much later time after it occurred,” said Taxter. “The suspect was arrested in the Pine Street Inn. He was not in violation of the Sex Offender Registry and so there was no reason that he could not have checked in. The Pine Street Inn played an integral part in his arrest. Even though there has been an arrest, there is more work to be done…It’s important to remember that the investigation is still very active and detectives are still working the crime and processing evidence even today.”
Taxter urged anyone with information to call the Sexual Assault Unit at (617) 343-4400 or to call anonymously at (800) 494-TIPS.
Brown was a Level 3 Sex Offender and was described as being one of the worst kind of offenders.
The fact that so many Level 3 Sex Offenders are housed at Pine Street and other homeless shelters could be the next wave of interest in this case for the neighborhood. The law says that any time there is a cluster of Level 3 sex offenders in an area, the neighborhood association or neighbors have to be notified. However, the law is vague and with homeless shelters, such a cluster might exist all the time.
“It brings up a good point,” said Taxter. “We are supposed to make notification to the community when there is a cluster of sex offenders in a neighborhood. Do we do it? Do you get notifications? I might be something you want to look into…Pine Street might always be a cluster. That might be part of the problem to not being notified.”
Meanwhile, Taxter did praise the new security plan at Pine Street that combines Kevin Smith, a former law enforcement officer, Longwood Security and the new metal detectors. He said that’s gone a long way to eliminate outstanding problems.