Police search for suspect who raped a woman in Center City law office

» Update: Police on Thursday identified 49-year-old Willie L. Harris as the suspect being sought for the rape of a 21-year-old woman in a Center City law office earlier this week. Harris has ties to Camden and Woodbury in New Jersey as well as Center City, police said. »

Detectives are investigating the rape of a 22-year-old female employee inside an eighth-floor law office Tuesday afternoon in Center City, police said.

“He’s a violent sexual predator,” Capt. James Kearney, commanding officer of the Special Victims Unit, told reporters Wednesday.

On Tuesday just before 2:15 p.m., an unidentified man entered an office building on the 200 block of North 13th Street and then entered the unlocked eighth-floor office and confronted the woman, who was alone at the time, Kearney said.

The man ordered the woman to sit down and proceeded to rummage through items in the office, Kearney said. The woman, hoping to make the man leave, offered her wireless earbuds and earrings.

The man became “frustrated and angry” and began to beat and choke the woman, then raped her, Kearney said.

A female coworker who had gone out for lunch returned to the office and interrupted the assault, causing the man to flee, Kearney said. The coworker told police she had seen the man hanging around outside the building when she had left for lunch a half-hour earlier.

On surveillance video after the attack, the man can be seen heading south on 13th to Spring Street, then there is a gap of 20 minutes before the man reappears on video around 12th and Spring Streets, and he is last seen heading north from there, Kearney said.

The suspect is described as a man in his 30s, between 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-11, with a regular build and dark complexion, Kearney said. The suspect was wearing a black baseball-type cap with a sticker or marking on the right side of the brim. He was wearing a black T-shirt, which is possibly an Adidas shirt, a white shirt underneath, and dark jeans and shoes, Kearney said.

The suspect also was wearing a gold-colored watch and a distinctive black and silver belt, Kearney said.

Kearney asked business operators and residents in the area to check their security cameras for possible video of the suspect around the time of the attack.

Kearney also asked people working in offices to exercise caution.

“We want everyone to be vigilant, be aware of your surroundings,” and “if you don’t know the person, they don’t have a [door-entry] card, don’t be the one to let them in,” Kearney said.

Anyone who possibly sees the suspect should call 911, police said.