Police charge man in connection with Oakland sex assault
Police have charged a Pittsburgh man with a March 3 sex assault in Oakland that led police to increase foot patrols at the nearby University of Pittsburgh campus.
Pittsburgh police arrested Javonne Taylor Thompson, 35, of Pittsburgh’s Knoxville neighborhood, on Thursday on 10 charges — five of them felonies — including attempted rape, sexual assault, aggravated assault, making terroristic threats, robbery and tampering with evidence.
Thompson already was being held at the Allegheny County Jail on unrelated charges, police said. His attorney was not listed in court records.
Shortly before 2 a.m. on March 3, an unidentified woman got off a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus on North Craig Street at its intersection with Centre Avenue, according to Thompson’s arrest papers.
When the woman was walking near 250 Melwood Ave., Thompson ran up behind her and grabbed her, police said. The assailant told the woman he had a gun.
The woman told police she did not fight back because Thompson had a knife in his hand.
Thompson threatened to kill the woman several times, the complaint said.
After Thompson made the woman turn off her cellphone, he sexually assaulted her, the complaint said. He also punched her in her left eye.
After the assault, Thompson fled on foot down Centre Avenue, the complaint said. He discarded a “folding knife” and the woman’s cell phone into a nearby sewer.
DNA samples later linked Thompson to the crime, police said.
At first, Thompson denied he sexually assaulted the woman, police said. Later, Thompson “no longer denied the allegations” but said he wouldn’t give police a statement about the assault.
Thompson previously pleaded guilty to drug possession charges from 2020, court records show. Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos sentenced him in October 2021 to up to 30 months.
Criminal records available online Friday didn’t show any other active charges against Thompson in Allegheny County.
A judge on Nov. 2, 2020 signed a Protection From Abuse, or PFA, order filed against Thompson, who then had a home address in McKeesport, court records show. The order, which involved a woman and a juvenile, was set to expire last November.
But Thompson violated the PFA order on Oct. 4, court records show. A judge extended the protection order at that time through Oct. 4, 2026.
Justin Vellucci is a TribLive reporter covering crime and public safety in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. A longtime freelance journalist and former reporter for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, he worked as a general assignment reporter at the Trib from 2006 to 2009 and returned in 2022. He can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com.
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