A suspected serial rapist who was hired as a police recruit in Clayton County, Georgia was arrested Tuesday (Aug. 27) after DNA evidence linked him to seven assaults and one sexual battery.
During a press conference, Clayton County Police Chief Kevin Roberts took responsibility for hiring 24-year-old Kenneth Thomas Bowen III last year.
Bowen “was hired, by me, in June of 2018, and he was also terminated by me on Sept. 12, 2018,” Roberts said. “He was removed from this agency during the academy process for being absent without leave. During the internal investigation, he was untruthful, which caused me to separate him from this agency.”
The chief explained Bowen was scheduled to attend academy training and didn’t arrive on time. When a superior questioned, Bowen reportedly said he was 30 minutes away. He didn’t arrive for another three or four hours. When questioned about his whereabouts, Bowen didn’t have a solid alibi.
“Had he not attempted to join the ranks of the Clayton County Police Department, it’s questionable as to when we would have apprehended him,” Roberts said.
The chief made it clear that Roberts was a recruit and “never a certified police officer with this agency.”
The department caught onto Bowen after reviewing 911 calls about a suspicious people. Clayton County Police Lt. Tom Reimers said most of Bowen’s alleged attacks took place within a two-mile radius of his home.
“We reviewed those calls and looked for names and the calls to see if perhaps an officer had in fact contacted him at some point in the past and run his name and birth date,” Reimers said. “That did lead to obtaining his name and birth date from a call from 2016.”
A search warrant was obtained last week and reportedly officer watched for Bowen at his current job and tailed him as he made his way back to his Clayton County, home. A traffic stop was conducted in which his DNA was taken. The positive DNA results came back Tuesday.
“We are in a safer state today because of Kenneth Bowen’s arrest,” the chief said.