Streets Department employee, 37, is charged with South Philly, Point Breeze sex assaults
Police Commissioner Richard Ross said at a news conference that Safien Williams, 37, “terrorized” the neighborhood before he was taken into custody Monday.
A Philadelphia Streets Department employee was charged Tuesday with sexually assaulting four women in South Philadelphia and Point Breeze over the last nine months, and police said he may have committed more attacks in the area.
Police Commissioner Richard Ross said at a news conference that Safien Williams, 37, allegedly “terrorized” those neighborhoods before he was taken into custody Monday.
Ross and other police commanders, including Capt. Mark Burgmann of the Special Victims Unit, said Williams may be linked to as many as nine assaults or attempted assaults on women since December. Burgmann said investigators would also examine other cases dating to at least 2017.
Police credited tipsters with providing information that helped lead to Williams’ arrest, and urged other potential victims to come forward. Williams, police said, tended to ride his bike around South Philadelphia at night, follow women he did not know as they were walking home, then attempt to attack them — sometimes at knifepoint, and often as they entered their residences.
“If you are a victim, come forward,” Ross said.
The incidents for which Williams was charged took place between May 20 and last Friday, Burgmann said. Each occurred between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., and the locations ranged from the 400 block of Mifflin Street in South Philadelphia to the 1500 block of Bancroft Street in Point Breeze.
Williams, 37, was taken into custody Monday and faces charges, including multiple counts each of rape, sexual assault, aggravated assault, and robbery, police said. It was not clear when Williams would be arraigned or whether he had an attorney.
Williams was hired by the city last July and worked as a semiskilled laborer at the Streets Department assigned to a division covering Center City and North Philadelphia, said city spokesperson Kelly Cofrancisco. Payroll records show his annual salary was about $35,000.
Ross said Williams’ job did not appear to have any link to his alleged crimes.
Court records show that Williams served time in prison for robbery and burglary-related cases.
In 2008, records say, he was sentenced to eight to 16 years for burglary and attempted burglary. It was not immediately clear Tuesday when he was released from prison in that case.
In 2004 and 2003, records show, Williams pleaded guilty in two separate robbery cases. He received a jail sentence of up to 23 months in each case, records show.
Cofrancisco said the Streets Department does not perform background checks for the laborers and semiskilled laborers it hires.
In Williams’ new case, three of the alleged attacks against women occurred this month, police said, including two instances of alleged rape and one alleged indecent assault.
The incident from last May was an alleged rape on the 1200 block of Morris Street around 6 a.m., police said.
Earlier this month, police released surveillance video of an attack Jan. 26 in the 600 block of South 16th Street. Police said the suspect followed a woman into the building where she lived, sexually assaulted her, and stole her purse.
Burgmann said police were continuing to investigate all recent incidents, as well as any older cases that appeared to match Williams’ alleged pattern.
In response to the alleged attacks, City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson hosted a public safety walk Tuesday on the 1800 and 1900 blocks of South Bancroft Street. In a statement, he said: “I want to thank the Philadelphia Police Department for its work to get this predator off the streets.”