Arrest Made in Van Dyke Rape Cases

Police arrested a man yesterday as a suspect in the rapes of two women in the Van Dyke Houses complex in Brooklyn. Thomas Boker was charged with rape and robbery after being taken to Kings County Hospital for a psychiatric examination. Police say that 29-year-old Boker was about to be charged when he started to act disoriented and didn't seem to know who he was. Cops linked Boker to the rapes with forensic evidence.

The most recent assault occurred early Thursday morning, exactly two weeks after the first attack. Boker allegedly was already inside an elevator at the 22-building housing complex when a woman entered. He held the woman at knife point and forced her to a rooftop landing, where he raped her. On March 6, Boker is accused of following a woman onto an elevator and then raping her for approximately 40 minutes on a 14th stairwell landing.

Two police officers were stripped of their badges and guns after the first rape, when they admitted that they had not been patrolling the stairwells as they initially claimed and had faked their memo books to make it appear as if they were doing their jobs.