California man robbed greater than 20 homosexual males he met on relationship app Grindr, DOJ says

A Southern California man stole greater than 20 dates he met on a homosexual relationship app and stabbed a sufferer within the chest throughout a theft, federal prosecutors stated Tuesday.

Derrick Patterson, 22, a resident of the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, was arrested by the FBI on Monday. His most up-to-date theft befell March 26 from a lodge in Beverly Hills, authorities stated.

Patterson focused his victims from November 2019 to March 2022 by way of Grindr, a homosexual relationship app. He allegedly met the victims in lodge rooms or at their properties for sexual encounters, the Justice Division stated.

He allegedly pulled out a weapon – a knife or a taser – after which demanded they hand over their cash and cellphones. At occasions he assaulted the victims after which withdrew cash from their financial institution accounts or used their bank cards, authorities stated.

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In a September 2020 incident, Patterson met a sufferer in a lodge room in Los Angeles and the 2 had been partaking in sexual exercise when he took the sufferer’s cellular phone and tried to entry Apple Pay and requested for the password, based on court docket paperwork.

He used a taser to threaten the sufferer, who ran out of the room, prosecutors stated. When he returned, Patterson had left however his pockets had been taken and his belongings searched.

A search warrant for Patterson’s cellphone quantity positioned it close to the placement of the theft when it occurred and at one other lodge the place the same theft occurred hours earlier.

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In October 2020, Patterson allegedly stabbed a sufferer within the chest, officers stated. The sufferer survived and recognized Patterson as her attacker.

He faces as much as 20 years in jail.