Man used girlfriend’s key fob to enter DC apartment to sexually abuse and rob tenants

A 26-year-old D.C. man was using his girlfriend’s key fob to enter apartments in Southeast, D.C., to burglarize and sexually assault tenant s in the middle of the night. Artez Powell was arrested and charged with fourth-degree sexual abuse and burglary.

On March 2nd, a tenant on the fourth floor at the 1901 C Street, SE, apartment building awoke around 5:30 a.m. to a man touching her buttocks and vaginal area. The woman, who was sleeping, said she initially thought it was her cat who sleeps in bed with her.

When the victim turned over, she said the man was running out of her bedroom. He was wearing all black and a hood, she said. The victim thought she had accidentally left her door unlocked the previous night. She then realized two credit cards were missing.

Investigative details show the key fob was used throughout the building between 4:22 and 5:57 a.m. on March 7th, in stairwells and elevators. The key fob was registered to a tenant in the building. At 5:18 a.m., the key fob was used to access the fourth floor, where the victim lived, through a stairwell. Then at 5:35 a.m., the key fob was used in several stairwells until usage showed its return to the fifth-floor apartment where Powell resided with his girlfriend.

On March 7th, police responded to a burglary call around 5:00 a.m. A tenant on the fifth floor said he was asleep inside his apartment when he was awoken in the middle of the night to the sound of a crinkling bag.

He woke up to a man going through his backpack on the floor. He said, “excuse me, excuse me,” and the suspect “darted” out of the apartment.

The tenant got dressed and heard the suspect running down the hallway. A Fitbit that monitors his sleep shows him awakening at 4:57 a.m.

An earlier report indicates an attempted robbery on February 17 at the same apartment building, where a man was observed walking down the apartment hallway checking apartment doors to see if they were open.

All the encounters were captured on Ring Doorbell security videos. When detectives interviewed the girlfriend, she said her boyfriend would leave between 4 and 6 a.m.

Police said “She assumed he was cheating, going to work, or getting food with his food stamp card,” the police report stated.

Powell is described as a black male, light in complexion, with a slim build, around 5′ 10″ tall. Video footage shows him wearing all black during the incidents. Specifically, black sweatpants with blue stripes or a red emblem on the right rear pocket, a black long sleeve shirt with an emblem on the back the shape of a badge, a black t-shirt, a black puffy jacket with a hood and writing on the left sleeve, black sneakers with lime green soles or gray sneakers with red soles, a black ski mask with the nose and eyes exposed, and a black baseball hat.