Homewood man faces charges in sexual assaults
When Pittsburgh police showed a photo array of suspects to a woman who was six months pregnant and had just been sexually assaulted, one image drew tears to her eyes when she told police she recognized her assailant.
“Oh, dear Jesus, good God, this is him,” she said Thursday, according to a police affidavit. “I know those eyes.”
Less than 24 hours earlier, the 32-year-old woman told police she had been thrown to the ground, forced onto her stomach and dragged down steps during a violent sexual assault behind Pittsburgh Westinghouse 6-12 in Homewood.
It was the second assault in the same area, police said. They held a news conference
Wednesday to warn Homewood residents about the assaults and let people know they were stepping up patrols in the area.
By Thursday, acting on some tips, police had arrested a suspect, Daryl T. Hayden, 56, of Homewood. He was arraigned Friday on several charges in both incidents, including two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse involving the first victim and one count of rape involving the second victim, as well as charges of strangulation and robbery.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette does not publish the names of those who allege sexual assault.
According to the documents, someone called in an anonymous tip late Wednesday after police released surveillance video to the news media, and that led police to the suspect. The woman’s identification from the photos led to Mr. Hayden’s arrest on Thursday.
Police recount similar stories in each criminal complaint: beginning with conversation on the street and ending with Mr. Hayden violently assaulting a woman behind the local school.
Police reported that they responded on June 10 at 6 a.m. to a call about a sexual assault in Homewood.
An officer found a woman lying with a bloodied face on the front porch of a home at the 1000 block of Beecher Street.
The woman, whose age was not available, said a man had threatened to cut her with a box cutter and then sexually assaulted her behind Westinghouse. The school is located at North Murtland and Monticello streets.
According to the criminal complaint, the woman told police she was in and out of consciousness as the man choked her. She said that the man punched her multiple times but that she was eventually able to break free and run toward Beecher Street, where police found her.
On Wednesday afternoon a second woman — the woman who is six months pregnant — was assaulted in the same location. She was taken to UPMC MageeWomens Hospital. Police interviewed her at the hospital the next day.
The woman told police that a man asked her for a cigarette, which she provided, and then he walked with her. She told police that she agreed to go to the male’s house “to hang out and talk” on North Lang Street.
After he realized his mother was home, she said, he told her they could hang out by Westinghouse.
According to the affidavit, the woman told police that when she refused to go down a set of steps behind the school, the man became aggressive, demanding sex. She told him, “that wasn’t the plan, plus I’m six months pregnant.”
He then grabbed her around the neck from behind with both arms and dragged her to an area with bushes, the complaint states.
She told police the man threatened to kill her with a knife and choked her. She said she fought back and screamed, and when the man heard a door slam, he ran across the school’s football field in the direction of Lincoln Avenue.
According to the document, Mr. Hayden told police that he met two women on separate occasions on Frankstown Avenue.
He told police that on the first occasion the woman agreed to have sex with him, but he admitted to beating her when they began to fight. According to the complaint, when police showed him a photo of the first woman’s injuries, he “denied he did that much damage to her face.”
Police did not specify in the criminal complaint whether Mr. Hayden spoke about the second woman.
According to court records, Mr. Hayden has no history of physical or sexual assault charges in Pennsylvania.
He is being held at the Allegheny County Jail.