Arrest Made in Penn Square Mall Rape

News9.com

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma City police have arrested a man suspected of raping a woman after abducting her from Penn Square Mall.

John Earl Stepney, 31, was arrested Thursday on complaints of rape, rape by instrumentation, robbery, pointing a firearm, larceny and receiving stolen property, according to Oklahoma County jail records.

Stepney was arrested on five rape complaints including the Dec. 23 abduction and rape of a woman from Penn Square Mall, an Oklahoma City police spokeswoman said.

Oklahoma City Police Lt. Ron Bracy previously said the woman told police she was returning to her car in the parking garage of the northwest Oklahoma City mall when a man with a gun abducted her.

Officers said the woman was forced to drive to her bank and withdraw money and was raped before the man let her out of the car in the parking lot of a strip mall.

"In these attacks the women were forced into their own vehicle, in both cases they forced into their own vehicle, driven to a place where they were raped and robbed," Oklahoma City Police Sgt. Gary Knight said.

Knight said that one's woman memory of the location of the Stepney's apartment was crucial in linking him to the crime.

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The Associated Press Contributed to this story.