Doors to Glenwood Towers will be locked 24 hours a day and be accessible only by security card after two sexual assaults in as many weeks at the city-run housing development for the elderly and disabled.
In addition, private officers will patrol the complex at night and check all entrances. And until new security guards are hired, Raleigh police will help patrol the complex.
The new security measures were announced late Sunday after an emergency meeting of the Raleigh Housing Authority's Board of Commissioners.
The latest attack at Glenwood Towers occurred early Sunday when police said a woman was sexually assaulted by a man at her apartment but struggled free before being raped. On March 22, an 83-year-old woman was raped after authorities said a man forced his way into her apartment when she answered her door.
In the latest incident, Betty Stewart, 59, said that when she returned home early this morning, a man came up behind her as she was unlocking her apartment door. He asked for money, she said, but then forced his way into her apartment and began tearing at her clothes.
Stewart said she fended off her attacker using a knife from the kitchen, and then a razor blade from her bathroom. The back of her hand shows signs of knicks. The man ran off without assaulting her further.
Residents and police acknowledge that occasionally an automatic lock doesn't catch as it should, and the tenants themselves sometimes leave doors unlocked
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