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Woman, seven months pregnant, raped by gunmen in Richmond home

Posted at 1:52 PM, Feb 22, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-22 13:52:55-05

RICHMOND, Va. -- A woman raped inside her Richmond home was seven months pregnant at the time of the violent sexual attack. The woman, who we will refer to as Danielle, reached out to CBS 6 to tell her traumatic story with the hope that it helped Richmond Police track down the gunmen responsible.

Danielle said she was sleeping the February 18 morning when her fiancé, who worked late that night, went outside to collect the couple's cat. It was around 2 a.m.

He opened the door, he hadn't even left the steps when two guys pulled his hood over his head and had guns up under his ribs, Danielle told CBS 6 reporter Melissa Hipolit. They tried to rob him, she said, then pushed him into the couple's home, along the 700 block of North First Street in Jackson Ward.

The commotion woke Danielle up.

She said she yelled down to her fiancé, then heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

Before she knew it, she said there was a gun to her head and the gunman demanded money. She said a second gunman had his foot on her fiancé’s head and had a gun pointed at him.

"He raped me and then he left for a minute to go look for more money," she told Hipolit. "Then he came back and tried to do it again."

Danielle described the attackers as "young." She said she was not wearing her contact lenses, so she was unable to get a good look at them.

"He was threatening to kill us," she said. "I am so angry and they're still out there."

The attackers took the couple's cell phones.

Once the attackers left the home, Danielle said she got onto her Xbox and got in contact with a friend in Seattle. That friend called 911 and Richmond Police arrived minutes later. It was about 3:30 a.m. at that point.

"They were very helpful and seemed very angry [about the situation]," Danielle said about the police officers who arrived to investigate the crime.

Danielle said she believed this was a crime of opportunity.

She said she wanted to tell her story not only to help get the attackers off the street, but to warn others who may work late or take their pets out at night.

"I want people to be careful," she said.

Her unborn baby was unharmed in the attack, she said.

Richmond Police said detectives were not ready to release new information about this case. Immediately after the crime, Richmond Deputy Chief Steve Drew said the department would increase patrols in the area.

"We have a lot of resources dedicated to it," Drew said. "We need to bring the two individuals who are responsible for this act to justice."

Anyone with information was asked to call Det. David Cuffley at 804-646-6795 or Crime Stoppers at 804-780-1000.

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