Victim says she was angry to learn serial rape suspect was police recruit

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — The woman who may be the first victim of a suspected serial rapist said she waited four long years to find out he's now under arrest.

Investigators announced Tuesday that they have arrested the man who they believe is a serial rapist responsible for a string of sexual assaults dating back more than four years.

Clayton County police said they arrested Kenneth Thomas Bowen III, 24, after they linked his DNA to at least eight of the attacks.

On Thursday, Channel 2's Tom Jones spoke with one of Bowen's alleged victims, a 22-year-old woman, who said she wasn't happy to learn the suspect lived about a mile from her.

According to police, the victim was attacked on Chaselake Drive on July 4, 2015. The victim said it was very tough knowing the man who sexually assaulted her was still on the loose.

She told Jones her attacker grabbed her in front of her home, dragged her behind it at gunpoint and raped her.

"He did put a gun to my head, and he even cocked the gun back and told me to run," she said.

Then she learned several other women had been assaulted.

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“I was angry. I was telling (detectives), ‘You guys, you have to do something,’” she said.

The assault was tough on the woman. Her college counselor helped and so did the newborn she had two years after the attack.

"It doesn't stay with me much because of her," the victim said, referring to her daughter.

It also helps that police have made an arrest.

"How did you find out he had been arrested?" Jones asked the victim.

"I got a call from a detective," she said.

The victim said she couldn't believe the news.

Police said Bowen was a onetime recruit with the department, but they said they terminated him before he finished the academy.

Jones asked the victim how she felt after learning Bowen was a police recruit.

"I was angry," she said.

She believes her attacker would have continued assaulting women if he had worn the badge. It's why she would like to see changes when it comes to police recruits in the county.

"We should do DNA testing on top of the fingerprinting for recruits, for the police academy," she said.

Bowen was fired for being untruthful. He is being held without bond on seven counts of rape and one count of sexual battery.

Cox Media Group