Police say a woman was able to fight off a rape attempt in the bathroom of a local store, and it resulted in the attacker's arrest on rape and other charges.
Harrison John Dolo, 69, was arrested last week and charged with robbery with a weapon, false imprisonment, attempted armed forced sexual battery, possession of a controlled substance and petit theft. He is being held in the Osceola County Jail on no bond pending his arraignment.
It's a place familiar to him; court records show Dolo was also arrested on June 23 on a felony drug possession charge and held in jail until Sept. 9, when he was released on his own recognizance after the state did not file charges in a 30-day period. The arrest affidavit in this recent case also noted Dolo was convicted of petit larceny in New York in 2016.
The incident occurred on Oct. 12 at a Dollar Tree store on west U.S. Highway 192 near State Road 429. According to the arrest affidavit, Dolo allegedly took a knife from a display on a shelf and forced the victim, who was visiting from out of the country, into a bathroom, demanded her money and attempted to rape her. When Dolo put the knife down while reaching for Vaseline in a bag, the victim escaped the bathroom while still partially clothed, and a companion called 911.
"OCSO credits the victim for remaining calm and successfully distracting the suspect to escape," Osceola Sheriff's Office spokesperson Capt. Kim Montes said. "We want to remind everyone to always be aware of their surroundings."
Surveillance video shows Dolo, who has a prosthetic leg, leave the store, but he was found at a nearby restaurant with stolen merchandise from the Dollar Tree as well as a nearby Ross outlet store, as well as a glass pipe with burned residue in his pocket, the affidavit said. A field test showed a presumptive positive result for fentanyl.
