Photo: BPD make arrests (David Yee – Berkeleyside)
BERKELEY — Police recovered one gun and arrested five young men on suspicion of sexually assaulting five minors who were invited to one of the suspect’s apartment.
On March 19 shortly after 1:30 a.m., police received a report that five girls ages 14 to 16 were violently sexually assaulted by men high on cannabis and alcohol.
One of the suspects allegedly pulled a gun and confiscated cell phones from the victims, before the men ages 19 to 25 began molesting and sexually assaulting them.
Two of the girls left the apartment after the alleged assaults occurred over a period of several hours. They borrowed a passerby’s phone on Shattuck Avenue to call 911.
Responding officers and several squad cars surrounded an apartment building on the corner of Shattuck and Hearst avenues, where they arrested the suspects who are now being held in custody at Santa Rita Jail.
One of the suspects, 20-year-old Chad D. Williams, lives where the alleged crimes occurred. Chad Williams is charged with sexual battery, committing lewd acts upon a child and oral copulation with a minor.
The other suspects arrested are Oakland residents 25-year-old Marquis D. Joyce and 20-year-old Jakari C. Williams,Drevon Clemon, 23 of Mather, and Maureece Simpkins, who is a 19-year-old transient.
Joyce is charged with false imprisonment by violence, sexual battery with restraint, two oral copulation charges, kidnapping, forcible sexual penetration of a minor, child cruelty, addict in possession of a firearm, and grand theft. He was previously arrested several times for other offenses.
Jakari Williams is facing 6 felony charges and Clemons is facing 8 felony charges related to sexual assaults, involving kidnapping, violence and oral copulation with a minor.
Simpkins is charged with rape, oral copulation with a minor, vehicle theft and receiving stolen property.
