Jose Angel Gomez, a 42-year-old man previously residing in Washington D.C., has been indicted on multiple counts of sexual assault, including first-degree sexual abuse while armed with aggravating circumstances and first degree sexual abuse with such circumstances. The series of indictments come for horrific crimes dating back to 2018, with the attacks spanning a period between July and October of that year, each involving separate victims unknown to him.
The indictment, announced by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and MPD Chief Pamela Smith, stems from three violent incidents in which Gomez is said to have preyed on women under the cover of darkness, leveraging fear and wielding a knife to commit his crimes. According to a report by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, the first attack occurred on July 15, 2018, when Gomez forced himself on a woman after threatening her with a knife at her home. The victim suffered a cut to her face, among other injuries, but managed to flee and contact authorities.
The subsequent crimes followed a grimly similar pattern. On September 7, 2018, Gomez attacked a second woman after following her from the Ft. Totten Metro station into a nearby wooded domain where he raped her at knifepoint. Another assault took place on October 21, 2018, where Gomez subdued a woman waiting for a rideshare, dragged her under a porch, and raped her. In all instances, his victims sustained injuries and underwent sexual assault examinations in the hospital.
Despite the perpetrator's initial anonymity, DNA evidence collected from each scene was entered into CODIS — the FBI's Combined DNA Index System. Investigators relentlessly pursued the forensic leads and, by June 7, 2023, had arrested Gomez in Louisville, Kentucky, with subsequent DNA testing confirming his connection to all three cases. The trial for Gomez is slated to begin on September 17, 2024, before the Honorable Anthony Epstein. If convicted on all counts, Gomez could face life without the possibility of release and would be required to register as a sex offender indefinitely.
The indictment highlights not just the severity of Gomez's alleged actions, but also the determined effort of the authorities under the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Cold Case Sexual Assault Initiative. The initiative, started in February 2018, partners with various law enforcement agencies to revisit and solve previously unresolved sexual assault cases. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amy Zubrensky and Marco Crocetti are tasked with the prosecution of this disturbing case against Gomez.
