Police arrest man in Oklahoma for brutal White Center rape, assault

Police in Oklahoma have arrested a 25-year-old man for the brutal rape and beating of a 58-year-old Auburn woman in the White Center area, the King County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday.

King County Prosecutors filed first-degree rape and first-degree assault charges Wednesday for the March attack.

Charging documents say Christopher Anthony Brown is a felon previously convicted in Oklahoma for burglary and assault. Investigators linked him to the crime through DNA after evidence found on the woman’s clothing was matched to the suspect through a national database.

“This was a brutal sexual assault and attack on a 58-year-old stranger,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Carla Carlstrom wrote in the charging documents. Carlstrom said the woman was walking to a bus stop in White Center to return home to Auburn “when the defendant grabbed her, strangled her almost to unconsciousness, and then raped and beat her for several minutes before leaving her for dead.”

According to charging documents, the assault took place 11:30 p.m. on March 6, after the woman had left Roxbury Lanes and Casino.

The suspect reportedly approached the woman and asked her for a cigarette, which she gave him. The suspect then propositioned her for sex, offering to pay her $40.

She declined and started to walk away when the man grabbed her around the neck from behind and strangled her until she was nearly unconscious, the documents say.

The suspect then dragged her into a dark, secluded lot, beat her badly and raped her, threatening to “kill her” and “shoot her.”

After the attack, the suspect ran while the woman got dressed as quickly as possible, stumbled out of the area and encountered a passing woman who called 911 for help.

The injuries suffered by the woman “were severe and permanently disfiguring,” Carlstrom wrote. The victim suffered “jaw fractures and multiple facial fractures,” and was taken to Harborview Medical Center.

The victim worked with a police sketch artist, and the resulting image “closely resembled” Brown’s driver’s license photo and a jail booking photo, the documents say.

Detectives received the DNA match from the Washington State Patrol Crime laboratory and determined Brown had sold several items at a local pawn shop and had been staying at a residence about two blocks from where the alleged rape occurred from January to mid-April, the documents say.

Other residents confirmed Brown had been visiting and stayed with them, and provided photos of him to police.

Bail for Brown has been set at $1 million. He is currently being held in Oklahoma City and faces extradition back to King County, according to Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County Prosecutor’s Office.