6 Attacks fuel fear in Frankford

THE PEOPLE of Frankford wanted blood last night.

Police believe that a brutal serial rapist who has been terrorizing the area since June may be linked to attacks on two more women yesterday, pushing residents over the edge.

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and scores of police patrolled the streets while groups of young men huddled together on corners, promising to crack the predator's skull if they found him first.

Mothers and grandmothers clutched knives and mace as they stood guard on their porches and ordered young girls to get inside before sundown.

Many Frankford residents vowed to forgo sleeping at night until the rapist is caught.

"Our plan is to sit up and be ready, because we're going to protect our own," said Meshelle Mayfield, a local block captain who kept a machete by her side over the weekend.

"We're taking our neighborhood back."

The tension only grew stronger when police identified a Frankford man as a "person of interest" in the case.

Investigators said Dorrell Shaw, 26, of Marlow Street near Bridge, caught their eye because he already was wanted on a parole violation, has a lengthy criminal history and lived in the area where the six attacks have occurred.

Shaw also bears a resemblance to a composite sketch the victims helped investigators create, said Capt. John Darby, head of the police Special Victims Unit.

Darby noted that no physical evidence has linked Shaw to the cases, but that mattered little to Frankford residents who seemed all but convinced of his guilt.

As of last night, police had not found Shaw.

According to law-enforcement sources, Shaw was released on state parole on burglary and assault charges on March 3, even though he had been cited for nine misconducts while behind bars.

Shaw was arrested on April 22 for attempted burglary and trespassing. Those charges were withdrawn in June because of a lack of witnesses, the sources said.

Although many residents said they were glad to see detectives make progress on the case, few could shake the sense of panic triggered by the new attacks.

She fought him off and he fled east on Wakeling, police said.

The second attack occurred about four hours later on Dyre Street near Frankford, the same location where a woman was raped on Saturday.

Police said that yesterday a 29-year-old woman was grabbed by a man and dragged into a driveway where he threw her to the ground, pointed a gun at her head and threatened to kill her.

As he was trying to remove her pants, a passer-by intervened and the man fled.

A vigilante streak seemed to stretch down Dyre Street near Duffield, where many neighbors took naps during the afternoon in order to fuel their late-night surveillance shifts.

Midori Newlin sat alongside her pit bull, Brownie, and noted the toll the attacks have taken on her daughters, ages 16 and 17.

Newlin said her oldest daughter was raped in New Jersey last year - a case that's unsolved.

"She's been crying all week," Newlin said.

"This hit a little too close to home."

She sent both of her daughters to stay with relatives out of state until the rapist is caught.

"Everybody wants a piece of this dude," said Newlin, who clutched a small knife and a canister of mace. "I just wanted to be ready for tonight."

Other neighbors said the streets of Frankford have largely been deserted at night since the attacks started.

Some people have removed window air-conditioning units for fear that the rapist would sneak in.

Parents, meanwhile, complained that their children have been held hostage in their own homes out of fear.

Mayfield, the block captain of Duffield Street near Dyre, said:

"My home is where I get my peace . . . We will get involved. If more people did what we do, it would be a lot safer."

Mike Truitt, a former Frankford resident who now lives in New Jersey and regularly visits a friend on Dyre Street, said the attacks have caused anger and frustration for people just trying to live a normal life.

"You've got some animal roaming the streets and raping women," Truitt said.

"He doesn't care about them and he's not going to stop until he's caught."

The other attacks that police believe are the work of a serial rapist involve a 16-year-old girl who was attacked June 11 at 1 a.m. on Adams Avenue near Unity behind a CVS store.

The attacker threatened to cut her throat as he raped her and took her cell phone before fleeing, police said.

Another attack occurred about 6 a.m. last Tuesday on Wakeling Street near Darrah when a 21-year-old woman who was parking her car was approached by an armed man who robbed and sexually assaulted her.

Yet another attack happened about 10 p.m. Thursday on Darrah Street near Foulkrod when a 16-year-old girl, walking alone after exiting the Market-Frankford El at the Margaret and Orthodox station, was robbed and raped in a nearby alley.

A fourth attack took place Saturday on Dyre Street near Frankford Avenue when a 37-year-old woman was raped and robbed at gunpoint by a man who broke in through a first-floor window.

Tipsters are asked to contact police at 215-686-TIPS. *