LEWISTON — Police say the city’s Flock cameras helped lead them to a Lyft driver accused of sexually assaulting a woman before dropping her off in the 7-Eleven parking lot Saturday morning.
Investigators said 26-year-old Aguid Mahamat, of Auburn, had placed the 27-year-old Brewer woman in the back seat of his car after finding her drunk and impaired in the lot of the Main Street store.
He then drove the woman to a different parking lot, police said, where he sexually assaulted her before returning her to the store an hour later.
Mahamat made his initial court appearance Wednesday where he was formally charged with a single count of gross sexual assault. He was being held at the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn where bail was set at $3,000.
According to court records, Mahamat had been released from ICE custody in Mississippi in late July.
The woman told police that she was at 7-Eleven early Saturday morning after a night of drinking at the Acme Club on Park Street. She had just thrown up in the parking lot, she said, when she was approached by Mahamat, who wiped her mouth with a napkin before leading her to the back seat of his SUV.
After driving a short distance, the woman told police, the man parked in a lot, climbed into the back seat, removed the woman’s pants and penetrated her.
The woman told investigators that she did not resist the man, although she insisted that she did not want to have sex with him.
Roughly an hour later, according to court documents, the woman was driven back to the 7-Eleven lot where she and Mahamat parted ways. The woman was later taken to St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston where she was interviewed by police.
Investigators viewed 7-Eleven security camera footage to confirm the woman’s story, but the footage did not reveal the license plate of the man in the SUV, according to the affidavit.
For that, police turned to the city’s Flock cameras and in a short time, they were able to obtain a photo of the license plate, which led them to Mahamat as a suspect.
After being called by invstigators, Mahamat went to the police station but an interview wasn’t possible because Mahamat claimed he only speaks “Chadian Arabaic,” according to the affidavit.
Mahamat provided police with bail bond paperwork showing he had been bailed from a facility in Mississippi where he had been held in ICE custody. The release date was listed as July 26.
The Lyft driver also denied picking up a drunk woman or being at 7-Eleven around the time of the alleged sex assault.
Lyft is a ride-hailing service connecting passengers with drivers for on-demand transportation.