(LibertySociety.com) – On April 5, federal prosecutors announced they caught a man in Southern California who had allegedly been using a dating app to find men to attack and rob from late 2019 through March of this year. Los Angeles suburb resident, Derrick Patterson, reportedly used Grindr to select his victims.
Prosecutors believe once the suspect obtained his targets’ information through the dating app, he would confirm a date and meet the victim at his home or a hotel, robbing them soon after the meeting. Reports allege Patterson sometimes robbed people using a knife but occasionally held a taser or another weapon. There were 20 suspected victims in total.
A Compton, California, man was arrested on suspicion of targeting and robbing more than 20 gay men he met on a dating app, authorities announced Tuesday.https://t.co/h75VztTJhV
— KRON4 News (@kron4news) April 6, 2022
A judge issued a search warrant for Patterson’s phone, which placed him at the scene of one of the crimes. His one alleged assault victim survived stabbing wounds and identified Patterson as the perpetrator.
Authorities said the 22-year-old’s most recent crime happened on March 26 in Beverly Hills at a local hotel. The FBI arrested Patterson, and he faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
Authorities ask anyone with information about the crimes to contact the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Los Angeles Field Office at 310-477-6565.
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