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Man arrested on suspicion of 3 sexual assaults in central Las Vegas

Updated April 9, 2020 - 4:56 pm

In August, Jamarr Reed was identified through DNA as a suspect in a violent rape, but by the time he was arrested this week he stood accused of raping at least two additional women, according to an arrest report.

The Metropolitan Police Department on Tuesday announced that police were asking for anyone who may have been a victim of Reed to come forward. The 37-year-old was arrested Monday in connection with three sexual assaults, Metro said.

The assaults happened in the area of J Street and Washington Avenue, east of Martin Luther King Boulevard, police said.

Reed told police during an interview that “it was common practice for Reed to discuss with his associates women to bring to his location in order to have sex with them for drugs,” according to his arrest report.

The investigation that led to Reed’s arrest began Nov. 18, 2018, when a woman flagged down an officer at J street and Washington to report that she had been strangled and sexually assaulted, the report said. The woman told police the assault happened at a home near C and Monroe streets.

The woman said she was with a friend whom she stayed with at the Salvation Army when he and another man led her to an abandoned home, where a third man gave them methamphetamine. The woman was left alone with the man who gave them the drugs, and he beat and raped her.

Nine months later, a DNA sample that had been taken when the woman was hospitalized matched an entry for Reed in the Combined DNA Index System, a DNA database run by the FBI, the report said.

Reed was later interviewed by detectives, and he admitted giving drugs to people in exchange for sex, the report said.

“Reed was asked if it was possible he had sexually assault (redacted) but was so ‘high’ he didn’t remember,” the report said. “His response was, ‘Anything is possible.’ ”

On Sunday, officers were called after a report of a separate sexual assault, where a woman said she had been assaulted by a man near F Street and Washington Avenue.

The woman said she was asleep in an alley when a man woke her up, dragged her by her neck into a nearby truck and assaulted her. The woman said she knew the man as “Hurricane” but didn’t know his real name, the report said.

While investigating the assaults, detectives found a case with “a similar MO and suspect description,” the report said. In that case, a woman told police on Nov. 19, 2019, that she was sexually assaulted in the same area where the other two cases occurred.

Court records show that Reed faces two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of battery by strangulation to commit sexual assault, two counts of battery with intent to commit sexual assault on a victim 16 or older, first-degree kidnapping with a deadly weapon, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary with a deadly weapon, robbery, and robbery with a deadly weapon.

On April 1, Reed was released from custody on his own recognizance in connection with a felony weapons charge. He was arrested on March 31 in that case, court records show.

After his arrest in connection with the sexual assaults, Reed remained in jail Thursday, detention center records show.

Police have asked anyone who may have been a victim or who has information about the assaults to contact Metro’s sexual assault section at 702-828-3421. Anonymous tips may be left with Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.

Contact Katelyn Nebwerg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.

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