Chapel Hill police make arrest in rape near UNC campus

A Chapel Hill man was charged Monday in a recent sexual assault in a parking deck near the University of North Carolina campus.

Vernon Lamont Reed, 46, of 115-B Cole St., was charged with first-degree forcible rape, robbery with a dangerous weapon, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, kidnapping and assault on a female. He was being held in the Orange County jail under $500,000 bond.

A woman reported being attacked at about 3 a.m. on Sept. 13 in the parking deck of Shortbread Lofts, at 333 W. Rosemary St. The apartment complex is a block away from Franklin Street and a half-mile from UNC's campus.

"We would like to thank the community for the many tips that we’ve received in this very difficult case," Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue said in a statement. "Our investigators have worked around the clock for more than two weeks to run those tips down. The tips, the immense amount of community interest in this case, and the hard work of our investigations team are what have led us to the arrest today."

According to warrants, the woman was punched, raped while a man held a knife to her throat and then robbed.

Days after the assault, three women reported that a man was harassing them outside Walter Royal Davis Library on campus with comments one of the victims said were sexual in nature.

That incident, and a delay in the university sending out an alert about the rape, prompted many female students to express concern for their safety.

Students expressed relief Tuesday about the arrest.

"I walk by this place all the time, and it’s kind of wild that a rape can just happen, just right out in the open like this," student Eli Powell said. "I feel relief that the police made an arrest in a relatively quick fashion more than anything."

Reed's only previous criminal record in North Carolina was serving less than a year in prison for credit card theft and fraud in 2015 and probation last year for cruelty to animals, according to state Department of Public Safety records. An assault on a female charge from Johnston County was dismissed in 2016, records show.

But he was convicted of aggravated robbery and kidnapping in Ohio more than two decades ago, court records show.

If Reed is released on bond, he was ordered to stay away from Shortbread Lofts and not to set foot on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.