Trump has begun another trade war. Here's a timeline of how we got here
Canada's leader laments lost friendship with US in town that sheltered stranded Americans after 9/11
Chinese EV giant BYD's fourth-quarter profit leaps 73%
You're an American in another land? Prepare to talk about the why and how of Trump 2.0
Chalk talk: Star power, top teams and No. 5 seeds headline the women's March Madness Sweet 16
Purdue returns to Sweet 16 with 76-62 win over McNeese in March Madness
MIAMI (WSVN) -- Surveillance video captured a couple attempting to stop a repeat offender from leaving a Miami high-rise after he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman in her apartment.
The confrontation, obtained exclusively by 7News, is considered crucial evidence in the case against 26-year-old Diontae Blackman.
Video shows the woman’s roommate and her roommate’s boyfriend grabbing and holding Blackman in the lobby of the building at 55 Northeast Fifth Street on Aug. 26, 2024. The couple acted after the victim told them of the attack.
Minutes earlier, security cameras recorded Blackman entering the lobby, bypassing security, and taking the elevator to the 35th floor. He was later seen wandering the hallway before entering the victim’s apartment.
According to the arrest report, the 20-year-old woman was sitting on her balcony when she noticed Blackman standing in her kitchen.
“She realizes the suspect was in her kitchen, so she confronts him and says in Spanish ‘What are you doing here?'” said Miami Police Spokesperson Michael Vega. “He had the top of a broken bottle, and told her to go to the room.”
When she questioned him, Blackman “took his right hand and ran his thumb from left to right across his neck area with the top of the broken glass bottle in hand,” the report states.
“Saying like ‘I’m gonna kill you,'” Vega explained.
Police said the woman was raped twice.
Roughly 20 minutes later, as Blackman attempted to leave, the victim’s roommate and her boyfriend confronted him in the lobby. Video shows them grabbing him, even striking him with a phone, but he managed to break free and escape.
Blackman was not arrested until December, four months after the alleged attack.
Miami Police said Blackman is a repeat offender. He was arrested in 2021 for a similar crime at the Lux Brickell Flatiron Building. In that case, the woman screamed, scaring him away.
At his 2021 bond hearing, Blackman told the judge, “I’m doing good. I’m ready to get this over with and tell my side of the story.”
He was convicted of assault in the 2021 case but later released. Now, he faces new charges, including armed sexual battery, kidnapping, and burglary with assault or battery. He remains jailed as he awaits trial.
