A Medical Center employee has been charged with the armed assault of three University employees Wednesday night in Duke Forest.
Donald Clarke Pearson, 19, of 105 Porter Place in Chapel Hill, was arrested and charged with three counts of kidnapping, three counts of armed robbery and one count of rape.
The assault occurred at approximately 7 p.m. as two University employees, a man and a woman, were preparing to leave Duke Forest through Gate 26 on Whitfield Road, located about 10 to 12 miles from West Campus, said Chief Robert Dean of Public Safety.
As the couple was leaving the forest, another male University employee was entering the forest to walk his dog. At that moment, all three were accosted by an armed man who had been following the couple out of the forest.
The gunman told the three victims that he was going to rob them and demanded that all three follow him back into the forest. When they had traveled out of view of the road, the victims were forced to empty their pockets and lie on the ground.
After securing the three employees with duct tape, the attacker raped the woman and left the scene.
Pearson was spotted entering his car on Whitfield Road by an off-duty Orange County sheriff's deputy. Upon spotting the deputy, the suspect attempted to duck into his vehicle, alerting the deputy's suspicions, Dean said.
At the same time, the victims managed to free themselves and one was able to inform another civilian of the crime. That person then called the police and the suspect's description was released to police officers via radio. The off-duty deputy heard the description and kept visual contact with Pearson until other Orange County officers responded to the scene and made the arrest.
In his preliminary hearing in an Orange County court Thursday afternoon, Pearson was denied bond. He will be held in the Orange County jail until his trial.
Pearson works in the oncology division of the Medical Center and is also a registered student at North Carolina State University. He has no prior arrest record.
The gun that the attacker used was not found in the suspect's possession upon his arrest, Dean said. He said the attacker may have disposed of the gun in the forest. Despite a thorough search, police had not found the gun as of Thursday evening.
The female employee was treated and released from a nearby hospital following the incident, Dean said, but would not specify which one. "She is doing as well as can be expected after such a traumatic experience," he said. "All the victims are very shaken up." The two men were not physically harmed.
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