A Kennewick activist is accused of raping a string of sex workers at gunpoint over the course of two years.
Investigators say Brandon Lamon Jones, 26, used a website to find women willing to sell sex for money.
When they met him, he would pull a pistol and demand sex.
Jones is charged in Benton County Superior Court with four counts of first-degree rape, and he's being held on $1 million bail in the Benton County jail.
He's expected to entire a plea to the charges at a hearing next week.
Jones also was ordered to turn over any guns he might have.
The alleged attacks share a similar set of circumstances, according to court documents.
Jones used an escort website to meet the women. Then, he allegedly would pull out the gun shortly after meeting them and force them to have sex with him, according to court documents.
The women also reported he demanded money and would take their phones, said court documents.
The women gave similar descriptions of their attacker, including that he was driving a white 4-door car and wearing a gold cross-shaped earring.
Police said two phone numbers used by the rapist to set up the meetings were both tied to Jones, said court documents.
One of the women told police "there had been similar assaults happening throughout the Tri-Cities with a similar suspect description," according to court records. The women said they were too afraid to report the attacks to police.
During summer 2020, Jones was one of the leaders of Unbound — Tri-Cities, one of three Black Lives Matter organizations which organized Tri-Cities protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The group has been inactive for more than a year.
Series of rapes
The series of attacks started on Nov. 18, 2020 when Jones allegedly arranged to meet a woman he met on an adult escort website, say investigators.
The woman told police when he arrived she recognized him from two previous encounters. The first time he paid for sex, and the second he refused.
This time the woman demanded the money first, so the man went back to his car and returned with a silver handgun.
At first, he pointed the gun at her and demanded money. The woman said she didn't have any money and begged for her life.
Instead, he forced her to have sex with him at gunpoint.
Two years later, in April 2022, the woman agreed to meet a man in a Kennewick parking for a "car date."
She told police when she got into the white Oldsmobile, she immediately recognized him as the same man. He then reached down and grabbed a 9mm Smith and Wesson, according to court documents.
He again demanded money, and took her phone. He then forced her to have sex before handing back her phone back. He then told her to count to 20 while he left.
Another woman reported a man arranged through the adult website to meet her at a Richland motel. Jones allegedly pulled out a gun after entering the room and told her, "Don't say anything. You'll be OK. Just be quiet."
He demanded her wallet, after she said she didn't have a wallet he held the gun to her head and demanded she have sex with him.
He then took her money and went to a white 4-door 1990-style Buick, according to court records.
She reported the attack to police, and said she had heard of other women who had faced similar attacks.
Caught
Jones was arrested after he allegedly arranged through the adult website to meet another woman at a Clearwater Avenue parking lot on May 28.
He arrived in a white Buick Avenue and got into the woman's car. After talking for a while, he invited her to get into his car. When she got into the passenger's seat, he pulled out a gun, racked the slide and held it to her head. He told her to shut up and, "If you say anything, I'll shoot you."
After raping her, he told her if she told anyone, he would kill her.
The woman went to police and investigators were able to find video footage of the car pulling into the parking lot, and match the license plate to a car owned by Jones, according to court records.
Police arrested Jones on June 2 at a West Fourth Place home. In a search of the car and the home, they found a 9mm Smith and Wesson handgun, and clothes matching the ones worn by the suspect in the attacks, say investigators.
