Man to face murder, rape charges

A man wanted in the slaying of two men and in the multiple rapes of the female companion of one of them has been arrested.

Omar Sharif Cash, 26, is in a New York City jail, awaiting an extradition hearing that will return him to Pennsylvania to face murder and rape charges.

Cash is accused of carjacking Edgar Rosas-Gutierrez, 32, and a female companion on Sunday near an after-hours club in Juniata and forcing him to drive to Bensalem, where he shot him in the back of the head and dumped his body near Route 1 and Street Road.

Police say Cash repeatedly raped the woman, 41, in the car and at a motel in New Jersey. She escaped at the motel and the suspect fled in the car.

Cash also is accused of fatally shooting Muliek Brown, 19, at a Frankford Avenue car wash on April 21.

"This is a person who we need to get off the streets for the rest of his life," Philadelphia Homicide Capt. James Clark was quoted as saying Wednesday.

The carjacking occurred shortly before 3:30 a.m. Sunday. The couple had just left the club on Castor Avenue. The gunman forced the woman into the back seat and raped her while he forced Rosas-Gutierrez to drive north on Route 1, police said.

The gunman ordered Rosas-Gutierrez out of the car, shot him in the head and left his body in brush, police said.

Cash drove a short distance and pulled over, where he raped the woman a second time, police said. Cash then took the woman to the Comfort Inn in Lawrenceville, N.J., where the rapes allegedly continued until she was able to escape about 6:30 a.m. Monday.

Philadelphia police said homicide investigators and Bensalem officials went to New York Wednesday and confirmed that Cash was the man in custody. *