Arrest made in sexual assault, kidnapping of woman in downtown Fort Lauderdale; suspect in second carjacking remains at large

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- An armed man who kidnapped a woman in downtown Fort Lauderdale, drove her around for two hours and sexually assaulted her on Aug. 12 has been arrested, police announced Wednesday.

But rather than bringing relief to police and residents of the area, the arrest now means a suspect in an eerily similar incident that same week is still at large.

The Aug. 12 incident was followed by another carjacking and kidnapping in downtown Fort Lauderdale six days later, on Friday. Yet it’s impossible for the same man to have committed both crimes because he was already in custody when the second crime occurred, according to Casey Liening, a spokesperson for Fort Lauderdale Police.

“I wouldn’t say we’re relieved because we still have a second suspect,” Liening told reporters outside of the police department Wednesday morning.

Louvensky Accime, 24, already in Broward County Jail, is now charged with two counts of robbery with a firearm, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of armed robbery-carjacking, aggravated battery, and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.

Additional charges are pending as detectives continue their investigation, Liening said, particularly pertaining to the alleged sexual battery.

Accime is accused of approaching a woman and a man in the woman’s green Honda near the 100 block of Southwest Second Avenue about 5 a.m. Aug. 12.

The armed man violently opened the driver’s side door, the woman told police, according to the probable cause affidavit. He demanded they give him their personal belongings, then forced them to remain in the car, saying he would kill them if they didn’t comply.

He then forced the man to drive the car while he sat in the rear seat, according to the affidavit. While driving, the man jumped from the moving car and fled to his own car, while the Honda crashed into a pole. The woman was not able to escape.

Accime then got into the driver’s seat, still threatening the woman with his gun, and took off, according to police.

For two hours, Accime drove the woman around, forcing her head down so that she couldn’t see where she was, according to the affidavit. He pistol whipped her in the head, causing her to lose consciousness temporarily, and struck her in the genitals with his gun.

Accime also forced her to give him her pin number and tried to withdraw money from her bank account at an ATM, according to the affidavit. When that didn’t work, he became violent, trying to choke her and pulling her head down towards his leg. Video surveillance shows him pinning the woman’s head down as she tries to get away.

Finally, Accime left the woman on Interstate 95, taking her cellphone and shoes, according to the affidavit.

Fort Lauderdale Police responded to a shot spotter alert in the area where the kidnapping occurred, according to the affidavit, arriving to find the male victim with a gun in his hand. He told the officers that he had been robbed and held at gunpoint by a man who had driven off with the woman against her will.

Then, a little after 7 a.m. that morning, the woman called 911 and said she had been kidnapped and raped by an unknown man. Her car was disabled, she said, and she was on I-95 near Oakland Park Boulevard.

Detectives were later able to identify the man as Accime using “investigative techniques,” though Liening would not specify on Wednesday what those were. The male victim then identified the suspect from a line-up.

Last Friday, six days after the Aug. 12 incident in which Accime is charged, a different man was carjacked in the early morning by an armed suspect and forced to drive around for two hours. At the time, police said that the circumstances appeared “similar.”

Now, however, it appears that the suspect in that case is still on the loose. Accime could not have committed both crimes, while another suspect found with the second victim’s car is also not believed to have committed the original carjacking, police say.

Accime had been arrested on Aug. 15 in Lauderdale Lakes, inmate records show, three days before the second carjacking. He was charged with resisting an officer without violence and violation of his probation for a previous case in which he pled no contest to burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, dealing in stolen property, and giving false ownership information.

Meanwhile, detectives ruled out Lias Corker, 34, of Lauderdale Lakes, who was found driving the second victim’s stolen Kia Optima hours after the carjacking.

Police arrested Corker after pursuing him through Broward and Palm Beach while he was driving the stolen car.

He faces charges of aggravated fleeing and eluding, reckless driving and driving with a revoked license, but he is not charged in the second carjacking case.

Liening would not say how Corker is related to the carjacking.

It remains possible that the second carjacking is somehow related to the first, even if the same suspect did not commit both crimes. Liening said detectives are “still looking at all possibilities.”

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