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Arrest made in sexual assault of girl leaving SEPTA subway

Police are investigating whether the same man may have sexually assaulted a teen leaving the subway on Thursday.

SEPTA Broad Street Line subway stop at North Broad and Race Streets in Center City Philadelphia, where police said a 13-year-old girl who had emerged from the station was approached by a man shortly before 8 a.m. Friday. The man told her he had a gun and directed her to a parking garage at 18 and Cherry Streets where he raped her.
SEPTA Broad Street Line subway stop at North Broad and Race Streets in Center City Philadelphia, where police said a 13-year-old girl who had emerged from the station was approached by a man shortly before 8 a.m. Friday. The man told her he had a gun and directed her to a parking garage at 18 and Cherry Streets where he raped her.Read moreAlejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer

Philadelphia police have arrested a man accused of raping a 13-year-old girl on her way to school Friday morning.

The suspect, Quadir T. Jones, 23, has been charged with rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and other charges.

Police said Jones approached the 13-year-old girl after she exited the subway at Broad and Race Streets around 7:45 a.m. Friday. Jones, according to police, told the girl he had a gun and directed her to a parking garage stairway near 18th and Cherry Streets, where the assault allegedly took place.

The assault of the student, according to police, was the second in less than 30 hours on the subway. A similar attack took place on Thursday with a 15-year-old victim, police said. They have not said if Jones is a suspect in that case.

“We are not ruling out that it is the same person, but we have nothing to indicate that it is either,” Capt. James Kearney of the Special Victims Unit said at a Friday news conference

Kearney said Jones walked with the 13-year-old victim, toward her school, after the assault. He allegedly took the victim’s phone and her number. He later called and texted the girl, and Philadelphia police were able to find and arrest him on Friday afternoon through location tracking.