Rape Suspect Released From Jail During Pandemic Allegedly Kills His Accuser

Alexandria, VA – An accused rapist who was freed on bond due to the pandemic went back after he was released and allegedly murdered the woman who had accused him of rape.

Karla Dominguez called police and said she had been raped by 33-year-old Ibrahim E. Bouaichi on Oct. 10, 2019, The Washington Post reported.

Bouaichi was arrested and initially charged with rape, sodomy, strangulation, abduction, burglary, and malicious wounding.

He turned himself into authorities on Oct. 21, 2019 and was held without bond, The Washington Post reported.

The prosecutor took the evidence before a grand jury and Bouaichi was indicted on charges of rape, sodomy, strangulation, abduction, and burglary.

The trial was scheduled to begin on March 30, but then the courts closed down due to the coronavirus pandemic, The Washington Post reported.

So Bouaichi’s defense team filed to have their client released for his health.

Attorneys Manuel Leiva and Frank Salvato asked the court to release their client and claimed the pandemic was a threat to both inmates and the attorneys who had to visit them in jail even though Bouaichi wasn’t eligible for bond facing those charges, The Washington Post reported.

Circuit Court Judge Nolan Dawkins released Bouaichi on April 9 on $25,000 bond despite the objections of prosecutors.

Alexandria Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan L. Porter said he argued that people charged with violent crimes are considered dangerous and are not eligible for pre-trial release under Virginia law, The Washington Post reported.

Bouaichi wasn’t supposed to leave his home in Maryland except to meet with attorneys or pre-trial services.

But he allegedly returned to Alexandria and gunned down Dominguez outside her apartment a few months later, The Washington Post reported.

Alexandria police said they received a report of gunshots at about 6:20 p.m. on July 29.

They found Dominguez dead outside her apartment, with multiple gunshot wounds to her upper body, The Washington Post reported.

Officers quickly got a warrant for Bouaichi’s arrest but they were unable to locate him for almost a week.

He was taken into custody on Aug. 5 after he led federal marshals and Alexandria police on a chase through Prince George’s County, Maryland, according to The Washington Post.

The chase ended when Bouaichi crashed his vehicle.

When police went to take the accused murderer into custody after the wreck, they found he had shot himself, The Washington Post reported.

Bouaichi was said to be in grave condition in the hospital.

The judge who released him from jail for coronavirus retired from the bench in June, The Washington Post reported.

Dawkins, who was a circuit court judge for 12 years and a juvenile and domestic relations court judge for 14 years before that, has refused to comment on Bouaichi’s alleged actions after he was released from custody.

It turned out that the arrest for Dominguez’s murder wasn’t Bouaichi’s first run-in with the police after he was arrested for rape, The Washington Post reported.

On May 8, he was arrested after police responded to an alarm from a Wendy’s in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Greenbelt police arrived on the scene and found Bouaichi behaving strangely in the restaurant’s drive-thru, The Washington Post reported.

Greenbelt Police Spokesman George Mathews said Bouaichi was uncooperative when officers tried to talk to him.

Mathews said he “may have been intoxicated, and wouldn’t communicate with the officers. He then put his vehicle in drive and rammed the K-9 officer’s vehicle,” The Washington Post reported.

Police said a K9 handler and his police dog were sitting in the vehicle that Bouaichi rammed.

He was taken into custody but claimed to have a medical problem, so he was transported to the hospital, according to The Washington Post.

Bouaichi was ultimately booked into the Prince George’s County jail on two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of second-degree assault, harming a law enforcement dog, resisting arrest, driving while intoxicated, and multiple traffic charges.

Despite the new charges while he wasn’t supposed to be out of his home under the terms of his release, Bouaichi was set free again on May 10, The Washington Post reported.

Prosecutors in Virginia said they would have tried to revoke his bond if they’d been notified of Bouaichi’s arrest in Maryland.