A man who sexually assaulted two women in the Annandale area on consecutive days last week is now in custody, police say.
Kevin Lopez Altan, 24, of Annandale was arrested on Friday (March 22) after allegedly raping a business owner multiple times two days earlier and separately attacking a Northern Virginia Community College student the previous day, the Fairfax County Police Department announced this afternoon (Monday).
At a press conference, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis described the assault against the business owner in particular as “abhorrent and inhumane.”
“There is no reason beyond he is evil personified. He’s brutal in his attacks on women. He’s relentless in his attacks on women,” Davis said. “…We’re proud that we were able to put him in handcuffs, but we can’t begin to explain criminal misconduct like his.”
According to police, a man tried to enter a business near John Marr Drive around 11 a.m. on Wednesday (March 20). Since the business was closed, the owner, a 59-year-old woman, told him that he couldn’t enter two times before he forced himself inside when she opened the door to tell him a third time.
The man then held the woman captive inside her own business for “several hours,” police said.
“Throughout this nightmare, the suspect sexually assaulted the victim repeatedly and threatened to kill her if she didn’t do exactly what he told her to do,” Sully District Station Captain Dan Spital said. “The victim found the moment when the suspect’s attention was diverted and bravely took that opportunity to escape.”
After escaping, the woman managed to run to a nearby business, where she asked someone for help. The 911 call came in at 10:13 pm., according to the FCPD.
While investigating the case, FCPD detectives learned that the Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) Police were looking into an attempted sexual assault that had been reported around 8:50 p.m. on Thursday (March 21) at its Annandale campus.
The 20-year-old woman who got attacked is a current student and was able to get assistance from a nearby student in fending off the assault, NOVA Police Chief William “Jake” Jacoby said at the press conference.
After comparing notes, including a composite sketch created by the FCPD, investigators from the two departments determined they were looking for the same individual, according to Spital.
Lopez Alton was identified by a NOVA Police officer who coincidentally recognized a description from FCPD detectives of the suspect’s “unique” tattoos and “mannerisms.” The officer had encountered Lopez Alton in his previous work as a Fairfax County sheriff’s deputy.
When FCPD investigators found that Lopez Alton’s fingerprints matched ones found at the Annandale business, police launched a manhunt for him, targeting shopping centers around Annandale where he was “known to hang out,” Spital said. He was ultimately arrested in the Heritage Center (7617 Little River Turnpike) round 1:20 p.m. on Friday.
“It can’t go unnoted that the NOVA police officer based on his remembrance of this perpetrator when he was employed as a deputy sheriff was absolutely instrumental in breaking this case wide open,” Davis said.
Currently in custody without bond at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, Lopez Alton faces a total of 12 charges. The 10 FCPD charges include three counts of rape, three counts of forcible sodomy, object sexual penetration, abduction with intent to defile, burglary and strangulation.
According to Spital, police believe the two victims were chosen at random and have found no evidence so far that Lopez Alton was involved in other sexual assault cases.
Court records indicate that he was previously arrested for a petit larceny on Aug. 15, 2021, an incident that carried charges for assaulting a law enforcement officer, and on Sept. 5, 2021 for fleeing from the police. In the latter case, he pleaded guilty on Feb. 11, 2022 to disorderly conduct.
Another arrest came on Oct. 3, 2023. While the circumstances are unclear, charges of assaulting a law enforcement officer and attempting to disarm an officer who had a stun gun were dropped at a preliminary hearing on Dec. 20, 2023.
Though there’s no indication right now that Lopez Altan was involved in other sexual assaults, the FCPD is encouraging anyone with potentially important information about him to come forward.
“If there are other victims, we certainly need to hear from them,” Spital said.
