MIAMI – Surveillance video obtained Wednesday by Local 10 News captured a suspect leaving the lobby of an apartment building in downtown Miami after he allegedly raped a woman inside her home.
The video shows a couple struggling with the man, identified by police as Diontae Blackman, as he was exiting the building.
Blackman was arrested on Dec. 3, 2024, following the August 26 rape.
According to authorities, Blackman, 26, entered a young woman’s downtown Miami apartment uninvited and raped her after threatening her with a broken glass bottle. Authorities said DNA evidence tied him to the crime.
Blackman, who police said was a stranger to the 20-year-old victim, is now facing charges of armed kidnapping, armed sexual battery and burglary with assault or battery.
In court last month, a Miami-Dade prosecutor said he had been placed on probation just four months before the assault for a similar crime he allegedly committed in 2021 in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood.
In that case, police said Blackman, then 23, followed another woman into her building’s elevator, struck her several times with a metal rod after pushing her inside her unit and tried to rape her. They said in that case, the victim was able to fight him off.
Authorities said the latest case happened on Aug. 26, 2024, in the woman’s unit at the Downtown 5th apartment building, located at 55 NE Fifth St. across from the Federal Detention Center.
Miami police said Blackman, of northwest Miami-Dade, entered the victim’s apartment at around 9 p.m., about five minutes after her two roommates left.
An arrest report states that the woman was sitting on her balcony when she noticed Blackman in the kitchen. Police said she asked him what he was doing there, “at which time he pointed to the hallway and mentioned the word room while holding the top of a broken glass bottle in his right hand.”
“The victim stated that she does not speak English well and therefore was not able to effectively communicate with (Blackman) due to a language barrier,” a detective wrote. “The victim stated that (he) took his right hand and ran his thumb from left-to-right across his neck area with the top of the broken glass bottle in hand. The victim stated that she believed this gesture implied that her life was in danger and therefore she complied.”
Police said he guided her into her bedroom and forced her to perform oral sex on him, then raped her.
Afterward, police said he left the apartment and the victim called her roommate, who was walking back to the apartment, to tell her what happened. She and her boyfriend, they said, saw Blackman walking towards the front door and briefly grabbed him, but he pushed them off and ran away.
Authorities said the woman was treated at the Roxcy Bolton Rape Treatment Center.
Police said on Nov. 26, DNA results came back matching Blackman. The next day, police said they showed the victim a photo lineup of suspects.
They said while the woman couldn’t pick Blackman out of the lineup, they showed a photo of Blackman and she said she had never had consensual sex with him. Additionally, police said surveillance video from the apartment building shows Blackman present around the time of the crime and matching the description initially provided to police.
Police said Blackman invoked his right to remain silent after he was arrested in Miami-Dade’s unincorporated Pinewood area.
Miami-Dade court records show that Blackman pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary with assault or battery on April 23 in connection with the Brickell case. He received a 22-month prison sentence, with credit for 720 days served, and five years of probation.
After his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped sexual battery and kidnapping charges in that case.