Anchorage police have arrested a Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson soldier on charges he raped two women over a period of less than 36 hours in July, both in Mountain View near the base, then tried to rape another in August.
Officers arrested the man, 25-year-old Spc. Tony Earl Bullock Jr., on Tuesday and charged him with five felony counts of sexual assault at gunpoint, two felony counts of assault and one of misdemeanor assault. The Army identified Bullock as a member of the 2nd Engineer Brigade whose work focused on small arms repair. Detectives ultimately matched DNA samples from Bullock's sperm and a cup he used while in an August interrogation, among other evidence in the charging document filed against him Wednesday.
Detective John Vandervalk said there is a "high likelihood" that Bullock has additional victims who have not yet come forward.
Mountain View rapes
Police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro said in a written statement Wednesday that Bullock abducted and raped the two young women at gunpoint -- one who was walking in Mountain View about 4:20 a.m. July 16, the other walking in the neighborhood around 6:30 p.m. July 17.
In the first rape, Bullock pulled the victim into a secluded part of an alley and forced "multiple sexual events" on her, Castro said. The teenage victim told police she'd been walking from her boyfriend's mother's house on Parsons Avenue to her home on North Hoyt Street, according to the charges, which Vandervalk wrote. She underwent a rape examination, the charges say.
Bullock allegedly followed another teenager the next night as she walked on Bragaw Street near the Glenn Highway, heading to some apartments, the charges say. Bullock came up behind her, grabbed her ponytail and pulled out a black handgun, according to the charges. After he allegedly raped her behind a school, Bullock left a condom that detectives would later have been analyzed at the state crime lab, the charges say.
Police issued a sketch and publicized the case July 19 based on descriptions from the victims. Even so, Officer Michael Wisel found Bullock early the morning of July 20 as he appeared to be following another woman walking in Mountain View, the police statement says.
According to the charges, Bullock was just north of the location of the first rape. Wisel talked to him at Park and Thompson streets, and while Bullock was not carrying identification, he told the officer his name, said he was in the Army and added that he lives with his girlfriend in Mountain View, the charges say.
"Bullock provided that currently his girlfriend ... was not at home, as she had gone out to a 'mansion party' so he had been outside for a smoke," the charges say. "Noted is that this smoke was taking place three blocks away from his apartment in the middle of the night."
Based on the context of what police knew about the two rapes, Bullock became a person of interest, Castro said, saying the officer's contact with Bullock appeared to have "narrowly averted" another sexual assault.
But it was more than another month before Bullock was arrested and off the streets.
Matching suspect's DNA
It was 4:30 a.m. Aug. 11 when Bullock allegedly struck again: A woman reported a man assaulted her and tried to rape her. He punched her in the face and demanded oral sex, the charges say. She provided a license plate number that matched Bullock's vehicle, the police statement said.
Detectives later interviewed Bullock, who denied hitting the woman in the Aug. 11 incident or trying to do anything sexual with her. He did say he had met her on the street, the charges say.
Vandervalk would not say what the investigation turned up between Aug. 11 and Bullock's arrest Monday. Officers searched places Bullock used as his residences, including his barracks room, police said.
The charges reveal more. Detectives sent a cup that Bullock used in the interview following the alleged Aug. 11 assault to the state crime lab, and the DNA from the cup matched the sperm found in the rape investigations.
In jail court Wednesday afternoon, Bullock, a slight man, covered his face with the charges. A woman in the back row of the courtroom gallery, who later identified herself as Bullock's mother, cried when Judge Gregory Motyka read the charges against him.
Motyka asked Bullock if he could afford to hire an attorney for what will likely be a long process in the judicial system. Bullock said no, but that he wanted to talk to his parents and a lawyer they'd hired temporarily.
"Do you work?" Motyka asked.
"I'm in the United States Army," Bullock said.
$1 million bail sought
The family's lawyer, James Christie, said such a case could cost more than "six figures" in legal fees. Motyka appointed Bullock a public defender.
State prosecutor Larry Monsma argued for $1 million cash bail and said he would be "more than happy" to tell the judge why.
"These are stranger rapes, and this is a serial rape in which he had at least three victims," Monsma said.
It's significant that Bullock was apparently bold enough to attack again a month after the first two assaults, even with news reports circulating information about the rapes and the police sketch, Monsma said.
Monsma said Bullock has no family living nearby -- his mother had flown in about a month ago after Bullock learned he was a suspect. "We have no way of knowing if he will appear in court," the prosecutor said.
"He targeted random and vulnerable women in a predatory and serial manner," Monsma continued. "There is a rebuttable presumption that no bail can reasonably assure the appearance of the defendant or the safety of these victims or future victims or the community under (Alaska law)."
Christie did try to give a rebuttal, but not until convincing the judge he was still representing Bullock after the earlier appointment of a public defender.
"He became aware of the investigation over a month ago," Christie said. "He consented. He did not take refuge behind the Fifth Amendment, though it was his right to do so. He gave a full and candid interview. He consented to providing a DNA sample at that time."
Bullock also never tried to leave Anchorage, Christie said. "If he was going to run, he would've done so already."
Christie said he had not yet seen the DNA comparison. He called Bullock a "decorated veteran and said Bullock had no prior criminal history." The charges said Bullock had no known criminal history.
Judge Motyka set Bullock's bail at $500,000 cash and $500,000 payable by bond.
Army spokesman John Pennell said Bullock enlisted in February 2011, was stationed in Alaska in March 2012, and deployed to Kuwait from April to December 2012. Pennell said Bullock had not been convicted of any prior crimes in military courts.
Bullock is originally from Virginia and came to Alaska from Fort Lee, Va., Pennell said.
Detective Vandervalk said based on the pattern of events alleged in the case, and the fact that sexual assault is an underreported crime, that he would expect to discover more women whom Bullock raped or tried to rape.
"You can see that he's involved in multiple events over a couple-week period," Vandervalk said. "There's a possibility there are other victims out there that haven't reported yet out of fear."
Castro, the police spokeswoman, credited the two rape victims' quick reports in helping catch Bullock.
Contact Casey Grove at casey(at)alaskadispatch.com. Follow him on Twitter @kcgrove.
CORRECTION: This story initially said Tony Bullock faced eight felony counts. He was charged with seven felonies and one misdemeanor.