Updated at noon – Montgomery County Police are looking for a man who allegedly stabbed a woman during a struggle at a Rockville hotel in early October and who may have been involved in a similar incident in Anne Arundel County.
In the Rockville incident, police say the man and the woman agreed to meet at the Radisson Hotel on Research Court after connecting on the classified advertising website Backpage.com. The man agreed to pay the woman for sex, police said.
The two met at the hotel around 11:30 a.m. Oct. 7 and the man paid the woman an agreed-upon fee, according to police. Soon after, police say, the man forced the woman’s hands behind her back. She then pulled out a small knife from a sheath hanging on her necklace. During a struggle, she was stabbed in the back and later treated at a hospital.
The man reportedly told the woman he was a police officer trying to arrest her. He fled the room with his cash and the woman’s knife, police said.
Police released surveillance images of a possible suspect Tuesday and described him as a muscular man in his 30s, about 6 feet tall, who was wearing black clothing, plus black loafers with silver buckles and a tan baseball cap.
Rebecca Innocenti, a spokeswoman for Montgomery County police, said Wednesday that officers put a notice on Backpage warning users about what happened at the hotel before the press release about the suspect was issued Tuesday.
Investigators believe the man was involved in an Oct. 6 robbery at an Anne Arundel County hotel in which a woman was robbed after arranging through a website to have sex with a man. In that case, the man also put the woman’s arms behind her back and identified himself as a law enforcement officer before taking money from the woman and fleeing the hotel.
Police are asking anyone with information about the man to call 240-773-6084.
Editor's note: This story was updated with information about the hotel and website after police provided it.
