This story was updated at 3:30 p.m., Jan. 16.

The Fort Washington man arrested for three home invasions in Bethesda, Wheaton and Temple Hills tried to run from police during his arrest in North Carolina on Saturday morning, police said.

Montgomery County detectives assigned to the U.S. Marshals Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force staked out a house where Kevin Darnell Ray, 33, fled to in Poplar Branch and arrested him as he drove to a Walmart in Kitty Hawk, Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said Monday.

Ray attempted to run from police and was injured near his right temple during the arrest, police said.

Ray was wanted in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, where three times in four days, he entered homes, bound the residents inside and, in the Bethesda and Temple Hills incidents, sexually assaulted women at gunpoint, police said.

In each instance, police think Ray saw women entering the homes alone and forced his way inside. He likely traveled to the homes by Metro, but police have not been able to confirm that, Manger said. In each instance, he fled in a victim’s car. All of the cars were recovered, police said Monday.

Ray is charged with armed robbery, the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, first-degree sexual offense, third-degree sexual offense, and first-degree assault for the assaults in Montgomery County on Jan. 10 and 11.

He is charged with first-degree rape, first-degree assault, armed carjacking, first-degree burglary, firearm use in a felony and reckless endangerment for the Temple Hills incident, which occurred Jan. 13.

Police identified Ray as a suspect in the crimes after he was caught on bank and store cameras using credit and debit cards he stole from the victims.

On Monday, police released more details about the attacks.

Montgomery County police think Ray’s recent string of attacks began the morning of Jan. 10, when he approached a woman holding her infant child in the garage of the woman’s home at the 2900 block of McMahon Road in Wheaton. Ray showed a black handgun and stole her debit card, cash and her car.

In the Jan. 11 incident, police think Ray forced his way into a home at the 9200 block of Bardon Road when a housekeeper stepped outside to move her vehicle from the driveway. She was forced inside the home at gunpoint. The homeowner and her teenage son were tied up in a bedroom while the man stole items from the house, including the homeowner’s bank card. Before leaving, the man sexually assaulted the housekeeper in a bathroom, according to police.

He fled in the housekeeper’s SUV, which was found Sunday night on Battery Lane, Manger said.

Manger said Ray was in the home for about one hour during the attack and a second suspect entered the home some time later. Police are not releasing any details about the second suspect, Manger said.

On Jan. 13, Prince George’s County police responded to a home in the 2500 block of Berkley Street for a report of a sexual assault. Police say Ray followed a female victim into her house after she had gone outside to start her car. The suspect produced a handgun, tied up six people inside the house, including a 7-year-old child, and then raped the female victim, said spokesman Cpl. Henry Tippet.

Police think each of the crimes was random and the families and homes were not targeted, Manger said.

Ray is a registered sex offender after pleading guilty to third-degree sex offense with force charge in 2005, according to online court and Correctional Services records. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with three-and-a-half years of the sentence suspended. Prosecutors dropped charges of first-degree sex offense, second-degree assault and use of a handgun during the crime.

Online records do not show when he was released from prison. He was serving parole and under the surveillance of the Prince George’s County Police Department during these offenses. Prince George’s County Police Chief Mark Magaw said he was reporting to the department as required.

The state sex offender registry lists three aliases used by Ray: Tony Robinson, Kevin Gantt and Mecca Bey. His address is listed as 12421 Gable Lane in Fort Washington, although he was staying at a home on the 3200 block of Dallas Drive in Temple Hills at the time of his arrest, police said Monday.

Prince George’s police searched the Dallas Drive home Saturday and found evidence, including handguns, clothing, wigs and masks that might tie him to the invasions, Magaw said.

Ray has served time in prison following guilty pleas for involuntary manslaughter and carrying a handgun in 1996 and two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon in 1999.

Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said his office was researching whether his office could prosecute Ray as a repeat offender, which carries stiffer penalties.

Ray did not have an attorney listed Monday morning with the court. A phone number for Ray’s home could not be located.

He has a bail review hearing in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Tuesday.

One of Ray’s aunts, who would not give her name, said she came to the press conference to get more information about her nephew’s charges.

“We are victims, too, as his family,” she said. “It’s dumbfounding to us. This is not the man we know.”

djgross@gazette.net; dgaines@gazette.net; jbondeson@gazette.net