Rwandan refugee accused of raping 90-year-old on Ohio bike trail

Here is a dreadful story from Dayton, OH (good catch by reader ‘pungentpeppers.’)

From ABC22  (be sure to watch the news clip, but this, below, is basically the text of it).

The crime occurred on July 14th on the Creekside Bike Trail, but Jean Paul Mpanurwa, 26 was not arrested for the crime until a few days later.  DNA tests link him to the crime and bail was set at $500,000.  There was early confusion about his nationality (Congolese or Rwandan) and whether he was on a student visa or was a refugee.

Jean Paul Mpanurwa arrested for allegedly raping 90-year-old woman.

This account concludes he is a refugee from Rwanda.***  Because he committed an earlier crime in Utah, the chances are good that he was resettled in “welcoming” Utah and that refugee contractors there know him (in case any investigative reporter wants to search further).  I checked and the State Department did send both Rwandans and Congolese, although in small numbers, to Utah.

Update: Here is another story that says his relatives are Congolese?

ABC22:

DAYTON — We have learned much more about the 26-year-old immigrant who is accused of raping a 90-year-old woman along a Dayton bike path.

Our team spent hours on the phone with several federal agencies and learned Jean Paul Mpanurwa was here legally. Sources tell us he’s a refugee from Rwanda, but since he committed a sexual offense in another state, we wanted to know why he was allowed to come to Dayton.

“I get incensed, and then I get irate. And I’m like in my neighborhood? In my neighborhood?” said neighbor David Messer as he explains the sense disbelief and fear that lingers over his neighborhood near Radio road, even though Mpanurwa is locked up.

“I won’t go out at nighttime anymore… my husband goes with my at night time if I have to go to the store,” said a neighbor who only wanted to be identified as Mary.

She and other neighbors want to know why Mpanurwa was able to join his family in Dayton in the first place.

“Who would really in truly do that to a 90-year-old woman?” asked Mary.

We searched through pages of court documents, and found Mpanurwa admitted to groping a fellow student at a Job Corp in Utah last Fall. His conviction of sexual battery was only a misdemeanor. A misdemeanor crime, even sexual in nature, is not grounds for deportation.

On Monday, we heard Mpanurwa was here on a student visa; but sources now tell us he would never be granted a student visa for nine years, and he was living here as a refugee. Neighbors we talked to today are outraged that more wasn’t done, and want lawmakers to revisit the books.

“Look at the laws on it, you know if he was supposed to be here as a refugee, you know, why is he still over here, really?” asked Mary.

“This is a serial person, he fits a pattern,” said Messer who knows that will help the Prosecution’s case. And as they build their case, Immigration and Customs enforcement already have a federal hold on him. That means if he’s convicted of this rape, they have already started the deportation process.

The comment by Mary above shows just how little the general public knows about the US Refugee Resettlement Program that is now over three decades old.   Refugees never are expected to go back ‘home’ even when things improve in their country.  They are here permanently!   People like Mary (not that she would be expected to know!) think we give refugee status just so someone can get out of harms way for a little while!

***New readers might want to check out this story about a costly Rwandan war criminal who was recently convicted in New Hampshire and sentenced to ten years in prison (her trial(s) cost taxpayers millions).   Surprise! She lied on her application for refugee status.

And, just to cover all bases, note that we are bringing in another 50,000 Congolese refugees over the next couple of years, here.

One more thing, last year in my MD county citizens fought and defeated plans for a “bike trail” that would have wound through 24 miles of peoples’ yards and farms.  Biking hobbyists said that  the people using bike trails are “good people” and we shouldn’t fear crime on those public paths.    Hmmmm!