The Bloomington Police Department has arrested a man in connection with a Sept. 5 home invasion in a neighborhood just west of Memorial Stadium, according to a BPD press release.
Devon Grounds, 28, was charged today with rape, burglary and theft, according to the release. Detectives took physical evidence at the scene of the Sept. 5 break-in on North Walnut Street and sent a DNA sample to the Indiana State Police lab before taking Grounds into custody early this morning.
Detectives interviewed Grounds, who admitted to being in the area of the attack on North Walnut Street, but could not remember what happened due to alcohol and drug use, according to the release.
In the Sept. 5 home invasion, a women reported waking up around 4 a.m. to a man who threatened to kill her and then raped her in her room. The man left and took her cell phone, according to the release.
Grounds also had an unrelated warrant for leaving the scene of an accident, according to the BPD release.
The break-in, occurring last week in the midst of a string of off-campus home invasions, is believed by BPD to be unrelated to other cases in which a masked man broke into four homes on Bloomington’s south side. IU did not alert students to these cases all occurring in neighborhoods densely populated by students.
Detectives are still investigating the other incidents that occurred Sept. 5 and Sept. 8, according to the release.
Carley Lanich
