Police charge homeless man with breaking South Side woman's back, pelvis in rape attempt

Pittsburgh police on Monday charged a homeless man they say broke a woman’s back and pelvis by shoving her to the ground while trying to rape her two months ago in the city’s South Side neighborhood.

William Hercules, 27, pushed the woman, who uses a walker, to the ground around 9 p.m. Aug. 18 outside an East Carson Street apartment building after she refused to give him her cellphone, according to a complaint.

Hercules then attempted to rape her, the complaint said.

When the woman started screaming, Hercules put his hand over her mouth, the complaint said. The woman then pushed a button on her medical alert device. When Hercules heard the medical alert dispatcher, he fled, the complaint said.

The woman’s injuries required surgery, the complaint said. She was treated at UPMC Mercy.

TribLive does not identify victims of sexual assault.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Hercules, who is in jail on an unrelated case.

Ten days after the assault, detectives spoke to the victim’s building manager, who provided video of the victim leaving at 9:09 p.m. The surveillance cameras did not record the incident.

The manager gave detectives a picture of the alleged assailant that was provided to him by a building resident, the complaint said.

Detectives interviewed the victim the next day. She told police she was out running an errand to pick up milk for a neighbor when she was attacked. The woman had previously told police that her assailant wore “all blue medical scrubs,” according to the complaint.

On the night of the attack, video from Buddy’s Brews, a nearby beer distributor, showed Hercules, wearing a blue-green scrubs-style shirt, trying to buy alcohol about 6 p.m., police said.

Four days after the assault, on Aug. 22, police found Hercules sitting in Ormsby Park on South 22nd Street with a blue-green scrub top next to him, police said.

It was not clear whether they regarded him at that time as a suspect based on the victim’s initial statement to police.

Three days later, police arrested Hercules for an Aug. 20 assault inside Buddy’s Brews.

Last month, detectives reviewed camera footage that placed Hercules in the area of the assault close to the time it occurred, the complaint said.

Footage showed Hercules taking a four-minute ride on a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus in the neighborhood from 9:24 to 9:28 p.m., police said. He was wearing the same clothing as during the assault, according to police.

Police know Hercules as a homeless man on the South Side who “is continuously intoxicated to the point where police are called to respond,” the complaint said.

Police charged Hercules with aggravated assault, attempted rape and four related offenses.