D.C. police say a man assaulted a dozen women over the past thre-and-a-half years. News4’s Jessica Albert reports.
A man accused in a dozen sex abuse and assault cases in Washington, D.C., was arrested Wednesday and charged with attacking women over a three-and-a-half-year period.
Uwana Ubom, 33, of Northwest D.C., faces numerous charges including sexual abuse while armed and assault with a dangerous weapon, D.C. police said. He violently threatened victims, flashing a gun in several cases, before sexually assaulting them, police said.
Ubom would approach victims who were walking overnight, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Assistant Chief of the Investigative Services Bureau Ramey J. Kyle said.
“This method of approaching women unknown to him while walking would become the suspect's predominant method of attack,” Kyle said.
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Many attacks happened near areas with lots of restaurants, bars and nightlife, police said.
Ubom is charged in 12 cases: two in 2021 and 10 since April 2024. Police used recovered DNA, combed through hours of video footage, examined cell tower data and reviewed more than 1,000 vehicle registrations to track down the suspect, the department said.
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“There is no place to hide for those who commit sexual assault in our city,” Kyle said.
Kyle said the survivors who came forward are brave and courageous, and their accounts were instrumental in making an arrest.
“We just hope this brings a little bit of closure to them to know that this person is now out of the community,” Kyle said. “Hopefully, he won't be able to harm anybody else in the future.”
Uwana Ubom charged in 12 attacks, mostly in Northwest D.C.
Police announced Ubom’s arrest on Thursday and released details on the 12 attacks he’s accused of.
Kyle said that the suspect’s attacks escalated over time, and there could be other victims.
“Since the first offense in June of 2021, detectives of our sexual assault unit have been diligently working to track down this suspect,” Kyle said. “The investigation intensified as the number of offenses increased over the last few months.”
Ubom is charged with third-degree sexual abuse in the first two cases from 2021.
On June 2, 2021, at about 2:25 a.m., the suspect broke into someone’s apartment in the 4500 block of Georgia Avenue NW and forced sexual contact with an unidentified victim, police said.
The next attack occurred one week later in the 400 block of Irving Street NW. The suspect shoved the victim to the ground, forced sexual contact and fled, police said.
More than three years passed before the next known attack, but DNA recovered in the 2021 cases eventually helped link them to the attacks this year, police said.
Police linked Ubom to a simple assault on April 2, 2024, when a victim was shoved to the ground in the 1600 block of 14th Street NW. The suspect tried to kiss the victim before running away, police said.
He’s also charged with third-degree sexual abuse that happened in the 1600 block of Fuller Street NW. According to court documents, he grabbed a woman waiting for an Uber, pushed her to the ground and lay on top of her.
She bit his face, and he ran off, the court documents say.
Attacks began to escalate with use of firearms, police say
The suspect “began to escalate" this spring, MPD Lt. Nic Rizzi said. Ubom used guns in several attacks, and threatened to shoot multiple victims, police said.
On May 27, the suspect implied he had a firearm to force a victim to comply with his demands, police said. He forced sexual contact in the 1300 block of Montello Avenue NE before running off, police said.
Less than a month later, on June 24, Ubom pointed a silver gun at a victim and forced sexual contact before driving off in a Chevy Malibu, police said. He's charged with third-degree sexual abuse while armed in both cases.
Information from a victim in the seventh known attack was “integral” to police eventually arresting and identifying Ubom, Kyle said.
In that case, Ubom allegedly offered a woman a ride at 14th and Belmont Street NW about 2:10 a.m. According to court documents, the woman was lost and didn't have her phone.
During the ride, the suspect pulled out a gray handgun and forced sexual contact, police said. He eventually let the woman leave, and she was able to describe the car to police.
Ubom targeted victims in apartment buildings in the 1600 block of Columbia Road on Aug. 11 and the 1600 block of Lanier Place on Oct. 13, attacking one woman in an elevator and another victim in her apartment lobby, police said.
The suspect used a handgun in the next three attacks, according to police.
He forced a woman into an alley near the 1700 block of 17th Street NW on Oct. 28, but she was able to escape, police said.
On Nov. 1 in the 1400 block of Ogden Street NW, Ubom took out a gun before abusing another woman, police said. She screamed for help and fought, and the suspect ran off.
Ubom’s most serious alleged offense happened on Nov. 3 in the 4500 block of 15th Street NW. He’s charged with first-degree sexual abuse while armed after allegedly taking out a gun, performing a sexual act and then fleeing the scene, police said.
Police said they released a photo of Ubom because they believe he could be responsible for other attacks.
“The suspect's brazenness and, again, the fact that he approached these women who were unknown to him leads us to believe that he may be connected to additional offenses, including offenses that could have occurred in the three-year gap between the cases we just described,” Rizzi said.
Despite DNA evidence, case was like a puzzle, police said
Kyle said police developed Ubom as a suspect in the “last couple of weeks.” He wasn’t considered a person of interest over the years.
DNA evidence linked six of the cases, according to court documents, but it didn’t match any profiles police had on file. Authorities are waiting on DNA testing in four cases.
“Each case had like a little bit of, like, a little puzzle piece that we used to kind of connect to the [larger case] and bring all these to closure,” Kyle said.
It's unclear how much prison time Ubom could face if convicted. A grand jury is set to review the cases and may indict Ubom on additional charges.
A judge denied bail for Ubom during a hearing Thursday.
Anyone with information is asked to call 202-727-9099 or text the police tip line at 50411.
