Twelve years after a woman says she was sexually assaulted after she got into what she thought was her Uber near Dupont Circle, police said DNA evidence has linked the attack to a suspect.
Ibrahim Rizkalla, 39, of D.C., was arrested this week and held without bond. Police say the genetic link came from a hit in an FBI database. Rizkalla was taken into ICE custody in June, documents say.
Early the morning of April 13, 2014, a woman told police she left a bar along Connecticut Avenue just south of Dupont Circle and looked for the Uber she requested to take her home. When she went outside, she said she saw a minivan and a man standing next to it.
“Are you here for me?” she said she asked.
He said yes, and she got in the van. As the driver left the area, she realized he wasn’t headed toward her home. She called a friend.
According to a transcript included in the complaint filed in Superior Court, the woman told her friend the driver was not taking her home. She kept repeating her home address.
When the friend asked if she was OK, the woman said, “No, no, no. I’m not OK.”
The transcript says the woman called out landmarks and then the call was disconnected.
The friend, who in the transcript police call a witness, “stated that the complainant became more scared towards the end of the call and she could hear the complainant say, ‘Please just let me out.’”
After being driven around for an undetermined period of time, the woman told police she was dropped off at the intersection of New Hampshire Avenue and 20th Street NW, just blocks from where she first got into the van.
She told detectives there were two men in the van; one was the driver, while the other man sexually assaulted her. After taking her statement, police took her to a hospital, where detectives obtained DNA.
She told the examining nurse, “I did not fight. I was afraid,” the complaint says.
For 12 years, police had no leads in the case. Then, the FBI notified investigators in August that a cold hit had linked Rizkalla to the crime.
“Rizkalla was taken into ICE custody in June 2026. At the time of his detention by ICE, he would have a buccal swab collected for DNA,” the complaint says.
It goes on to say, “It appears Rizkalla has a pending or resolved refugee claim.”
D.C. police declined a request for comment.
Rizkalla, who police say is married with a child, has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Friday. The complaint says he was found guilty of sexual battery in Fairfax County in 2009 and served 20 days in jail.
News4 reached out to the person listed as his lawyer, but we have not heard back.
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