‘A ticking time bomb’: Northern Liberties neighbors say suspect in rape attempt was known

Over the summer, Northern Liberties residents were posting frequently on a neighborhood Facebook page about a young man allegedly trying to open doors, peering into windows, and harassing women.

On Sunday, police arrested Lakim Wilson, 21, on suspicion of following a woman and trying to rape her a week earlier, authorities said. Wilson, of the 1000 block of Girard Avenue in North Philadelphia, is being held on $100,000 bail.

Neighbors say Wilson shouldn't have been out on the street in the first place.

"His name and identity was known, he was arrested [before], and for a variety of reasons he was able to end up back on the street, which gave him the opportunity to commit this much more serious crime, and it's only by sheer luck that it wasn't worse than it was," Matt Ruben, president of the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association, said Wednesday.

Of Wilson's prior arrests, Ben Waxman, a spokesperson for the District Attorney's Office, said in an email that Wilson had been charged by his office with "multiple offenses in the summer of 2018. There were a total of 10 charges brought by the DA's Office during that period, including two felonies."

Waxman noted one incident in which Wilson was arrested and the DA's Office declined to charge Wilson "due to insignificant evidence." Wilson remains under investigation in that case, Waxman said.

Police Capt. Sekou Kinebrew said by email Tuesday that in that incident, Wilson was arrested July 21 after trying to enter a business on the 1000 block of North Third Street while it was closed, but that no charges were filed by the DA's Office due to lack of evidence.

Wilson was being represented by the Defender Association of Philadelphia, which generally does not comment on open cases. A voice-mail message left for the association Wednesday was not returned.

It was early in the summer when neighbors started posting on the Northern Liberties Neighbors Facebook page about a prowler. One 34-year-old woman said that about 7:30 p.m. on June 22, after she heard her dog barking, she ran downstairs and saw a man jumping out of the bushes in front of her first-floor window. She then posted to the Facebook page surveillance video of the man, which showed his face, and called police.

Within an hour of her posting, she said, seven neighbors either posted on the page or contacted her to say that they also had spotted him either testing door handles, peering into or trying to enter people's windows, or harassing women in the street. A police officer arrived but was unable to locate him, she said.

Wilson was arrested June 30 in four other cases that month and charged with crimes including criminal trespass and burglary. He remained in custody until July 16, when Municipal Court Judge Thomas Gehret changed his bail to unsecured — meaning he did not have to post any money — and Wilson was released.

After his June 30 arrest, neighbors learned his name. One neighbor found a photo of him from a website for aspiring actors and models, and posted it.

Wilson allegedly was back in the neighborhood July 20 and was caught on a married couple's surveillance video walking up to their front steps at night with a hand in his pants, then leaving. The wife put the video on the neighborhood Facebook page.

The husband, 33, said that about 11 a.m. the next morning, he again saw the man on the block and told him to leave.

"I had a large pit bull and I said I was going to call the cops," the husband said in a phone interview. "He went away."

A neighbor then informed him that Wilson had just tried to open the neighbor's front door, the husband said.

The wife, 36, said that police had wanted to arrest Wilson for allegedly trying to open people's doors, but that the DA's Office declined to charge him.Wilson "was literally lurking around our neighborhood for weeks and we were posting it" on Facebook, she said. "Police said he was getting brazen. They were concerned he was going to sexually assault somebody."

"It was a ticking time bomb," the woman said.

On Aug. 23, Wilson was arrested in connection with two theft cases from June. The DA's Office argued unsuccessfully for high bail, Waxman said. Wilson posted bail two days later.

Then, about 1:50 a.m. Sept. 23, Wilson, reportedly on a bike, allegedly followed a 29-year-old woman back to her apartment on Randolph Street. In the hallway, he allegedly pushed her against a wall and began unfastening her belt. The woman screamed and ran to her second-floor apartment. Minutes later, she heard knocking on her door and thought it was her landlord, a police officer who lives on the first floor, according to court documents.

But after she opened her door, the man forced his way in and she began screaming again until her landlord entered the hallway, the documents say. The man then left. Later, police showed photo arrays to the woman and her landlord, who each identified Wilson, the documents say. He was then arrested.