By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — A 22-year-old Providence man was arrested on felony charges of first degree sexual assault and kidnapping after allegedly raping a local woman behind an abandoned warehouse on Conant Street early Saturday morning.

Pawtucket Police identified the suspect as Kevin L. Crumel, of 208 Prairie Ave. He has been arraigned and was ordered held without bail pending his next court appearance.
According to Pawtucket Police, the victim had approached  Patrol Officer Michael Heon who was in the Hess gas station parking lot at 250 Mineral Spring Avenue at around 3:10 a.m. and told him she had been raped. She pointed out the alleged suspect, Crumel, who was riding a bicycle nearby, and Heon apprehended him.
The victim told police that she was walking home from Rand Street in Central Falls shortly after 1 a.m. While on Pine Street, she said she saw two males, one walking and one riding a bicycle, who were whistling and making comments to her. She said she kept walking and saw the two men split up. However, when she turned onto Conant Street, she said the man on the bicycle came around the corner from Weeden Street and tossed his bicycle into some bushes.
The woman said the suspect grabbed her by the hair and pulled her behind the building near the intersection of Conant and Carpenter streets. She said he told her he was going to rape her and then proceeded to do so, assaulting her in two locations. She said that the suspect kept threatening her and kept her at that location for about two hours.
The woman told police that the suspect then told her he was going to walk home with her and threatened to rape her again at her house, and every time that he saw her after that. She said the two began walking and as they passed the Hess gas station, she saw the police cruiser. When she began approaching the cruiser, she said the suspect began to walk away from her on Mineral Spring Avenue.
Police say they found clothing and other evidence at the scene that supported the victim’s story. She was transported to Women & Infants Hospital for treatment, police said.