FORT APACHE INDIAN RESERVATION, Ariz. – Federal officials arrested a man Friday who they believe was posing as a police officer and raping young girls on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation.
A task force with the Bureau of Indian Affairs took 29-year-old Jimi Aday into custody on charges of kidnapping and aggravated sexual contact, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of the Interior. Officials planned to take Aday to Flagstaff for a court appearance Saturday.
Since March, a man posing as a police officer has raped at least 12 girls and a 20-year-old woman, authorities have said. The man told the girls they were under arrest, handcuffed them and then raped them. The most recent attack was Sept. 6.
Only two of the girls reported the rapes because they thought they had been attacked by an actual police officer, said Warren Youngman, assistant special agent in charge at the BIA. Agents found most of the other victims after they went house-to-house to tell residents about the incidents.
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