Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw, 27, was arrested Wednesday after allegedly sexually assaulting at least six women while on duty. Police chief Bill Citty said at a news conference yesterday that Holtzclaw would "stop the women while he was working, force them to expose themselves, fondle them, and in at least one instance had intercourse with a woman." To get the women to comply, he allegedly threatened to arrest them.

Holtzclaw, who, as the Associated Press helpfully points out, was a star football player in high school and college, is being held on complaints of rape, forcible oral sodomy, sexual battery, and indecent exposure. His alleged victims are all black women between the ages of 34 and 58. The department learned of the allegations in June, when one victim came forward, and Holtzclaw's been on leave since then. Citty explained:

We started the investigation and we started looking at traffic stops he had made throughout the previous months to try to identify and initiate contact with females that we knew he had stopped during that period of time ... to see if they had been sexually assaulted.

The Oklahoman reports that Holtzclaw "worked the 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift," and that the alleged assaults mostly "happened at the location of the stops, but some victims were taken to remote locations."

[Image via AP]