It's hard for Stanisha Hester to believe accusations that 31-year-old Raynard Deshawn Coleman may be the serial rapist on Detroit's northeast side. Coleman was her childhood friend.

"When I heard of that on Facebook it was like a shock because he was one of the sweetest guys," she said. "He was very respectful. If he did do this maybe he started drugs or something that had his mind wrapped up but when he was around me he was always a gentleman."

Hester and Coleman grew up in the same east Detroit neighborhood and attended the same elementary school. They corresponded while he was incarcerated for 14 years. Even then, she didn't see him as the 14-year-old convicted felon on assault and robbery charges.

"Back then, it probably was like peer pressure and him just hanging with the wrong crowd," she said. "He was hanging with older guys and maybe it was that. When he was in school he wasn't like the thug or hardcore guy."

After Coleman's 2009 release from prison, Hester spent time helping him look for jobs by driving him to interviews or giving him bus fare if she couldn't drive him. The two talked on the phone everyday.

"We talked about if we were going to be together. I told him at the time I didn't want that."

Hester says she was involved with someone else at the time and was not interested in a romantic relationship with Coleman but did remain friends with him. On occasion he visited her house.

"When he came over, he spent the night and never tried to force himself on me," she said. "I just know him as the gentleman he was with me."

Safety is somewhat restored for women walking the streets and waiting for buses on Detroit's northeast side. The man suspected to be the criminal behind the series of rape attacks since January 1st was arraigned on formal charges this afternoon.

"There's no person in the Metro-area that this didn't touch," Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. said.

Raynard Coleman (pictured above), 31, is being held on multiple charges of criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping. If convicted, he faces multiple life sentences. His previous criminal history includes assault with intent to murder and robbery. He served 14 years in prison for his last criminal offense and was released on parole in 2009.

Police picked up Coleman last Wednesday at an Eastside home (pictured above) on Lansdowne Street, after several tips and forensic evidence allegedly connected him to the assaults. He was identified in a line-up by six of the seven victimized women. Godbee noted that science was significant in the investigation:

"We had done everything in our investigative power, our deployment strategies, soliciting tips in the community but the last critical piece was the science," he said.

The rape spree ignited communal terror and the victory of catching the suspect is reassuring for residents in the area.

A man has been arrested in connection to a series of rapes that took place earlier this month on Detroit's east side. On Wednesday afternoon, police picked up a 31-year-old man just blocks from where one of the seven attacks took place.

She's not from Detroit and neither are her cohorts but through the internet they have galvanized to form the International Aiyana Alliance. It's their response to the killing of 7-year-old Aiyana Jones, who was fatally shot during a search raid performed by Detroit police in late May.

"When you're a mom, that mother lionness instinct comes out in you and you're just like 'no this is unacceptable,'" Allison, Founder of the International Aiyana Alliance, said. "I started grieving for this child even though I had never met her." The group recently held a peace march in Detroit to support the community and send an important message to the world.

The unfortunate chain of events that led to Aiyana Jones' death last Sunday began that Friday at a convenience store on St. Jean and Mack, located just around the corner from the house, where the 7-year-old was accidentally shot by Detroit police.

At the store, Je'Rean Blake, a 17-year-old student at Southeastern High School, was shot in the heart at close range shortly after dismissal from school Friday afternoon.

As they reconcile the senseless death of a young child at the hands of Detroit police, neighbors of the residents who live in the home, where 7-year-old Aiyana Jones was killed, also welcome a newfound peace on that block of the East Side neighborhood.

Although the child's death has gripped the city with cries of injustice and police abuse, and spawned loud protests and even lawsuits before the girl could be laid to rest, people who live near the home paint a different picture of Aiyana's family.