DNA results have linked a 34-year-old Mesquite man to a rape in an Uptown parking garage last week and also to another rape that happened in the Uptown area in 2017, according to two law enforcement sources and a police news release.
Police announced Friday morning that Dralon Patterson was linked to the Feb. 1 rape at the AMLI Quadrangle on Howell Street.
Police also said that DNA results linked Patterson to a sexual assault that happened on Nov. 19, 2017, several blocks away in West Village. A 26-year-old woman was walking to her car in the 3100 block of Lemmon Avenue when the suspect approached her and raped her in a vehicle, police said.
The victim went to a hospital, where DNA was collected. The DNA profile from the 2017 matched that of Patterson, police said.
Patterson, who was arrested Feb. 2, is being held in the Dallas County jail on a charge of aggravated sexual assault in the Uptown rape and a charge of evading arrest. His bonds total more than $250,000.
Detectives on Friday were working to prepare an arrest warrant for the West Village case.
Patterson was taken into custody on an evading arrest charge on Feb. 2 after a short foot chase. A caller had reported that Patterson was in the same area as the sexual assault the night before and that he was "exhibiting suspicious behavior," police said.
In the rape on Feb. 1, authorities said a woman was walking in the parking garage of her apartment complex when she was approached by a man.
Police said that after first “exchanging pleasantries,” the suspect threatened the woman with a weapon, forced her back into the car and then sexually assaulted her. The man took some of the woman’s belongings before disappearing on foot.
Detectives said that the attack happened in the lower level of the garage.