Chattanooga Police make arrest in Rape Wednesday

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) –  The Chattanooga Police Department say a man is behind bars, charged with Rape.

The suspect is Anthony Lebron Vance. Vance was arrested January 10th just after Noon.

The arrest affidavit says that around 8 am January 3rd, Chattanooga Police officers responded to a rape on Wilson Street.

The victim told police that she had been raped in a backyard behind several duplexes. She says she got of the bus at a bus stop on Wilson Street around 6:15 am on her way home from work.

She says she was then grabbed and forced into the backyard. She told police that after a brief tussle with the suspect, she was rapped.

The victim told police that he told her that he was a member of the gang, Crips. She says he also told her that he had a gun in his pocket and that if she called the police, he would kill her and her family.

Based on a detail description provided by the victim, Chattanooga Police searched the sex offender database for offenders in the area near the incident.  The suspect had been arrested the same night of the incident and the clothing matched what the victim described.

Vance denied raping the victim, but because he was positively identified in a lineup and has a history of sexual assault, he was transported to Hamilton County Jail. He is charged with forcible rape.