SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Police say DNA has linked a cab driver to two sexual assaults, one in Phoenix and another in Scottsdale.
On April 16, Police arrested 56-year-old Abbas Jassmin Shemisawi for two sexual assault incidents, one in Phoenix and another in Scottsdale.
On April 1, 2017, Phoenix police were alerted to a sexual assault reported to them by a transgender woman. She reportedly told police that she was picked up outside a bar near 7th Avenue and Camelback Road by a cab.
She told the cab driver, later identified as Shemisawi, that she had no money, but he offered to take her home anyway.
Shemisawi also bought her some food and while in the drive-thru he allegedly exposed himself to her and sexually grabbed her.
He then took her to the parking lot of a nearby hotel, where he sexually assaulted her, according to court records.
The victim managed to get a photo of the car's license plate number. Police say DNA evidence later linked Shemisawi to the assault.
Court records show that the DNA also linked Shemisawi to an October 2016 sexual assault in Scottsdale.
In this case, a woman was picked up at a bar in downtown Scottsdale. She then woke up on a couch inside a Scottsdale apartment with paramedics asking her questions.
She was found passed out on the bathroom floor of a stranger's home. The man who found her in his home called the police. The victim later realized she had been sexually assaulted. Police say DNA evidence officially ruled out the man who found her in his apartment.
The case remained unsolved until lab results linked Shemisawi to both crimes.
He is being held on a $100,000 cash bond for two counts of kidnapping and two counts of sexual assault.
