GULF SHORES, AL - City police issued a brief press release on about 12:30 p.m. on March 16 reporting they are investigating a possible rape.

The following statement was released by Lt. Bill Cowan:

“The Gulf Shores police are investigating an alleged rape that happened in the evening of March 15. The attack is reported to have happened in the 500 block of East Beach Boulevard.

There are no suspects at this time.”

On March 17 police said the alleged victim was a 23-year-old woman from Kansas vacationing in Gulf Shores. The release said that the incident was reported to have occurred between 6-8 p.m. "on or near the beach."

In a separate release on March 17 police noted there were 177 arrests for minors in possession of alcohol, 38 arrests for public intoxication and 293 overall arrests from 6 a.m. on March 5 to 6 a.m. on March 17.

Orange Beach Police reported between March 1 and March 17 there were 247 arrests for minors in possession of alcohol, six for public intoxication and 315 overall arrests.

The alleged rape in Gulf Shores came just two days after a spring breaker from Stephenville, Texas, was found unresponsive at a beach house in Orange Beach on March 13. He later died at South Baldwin Regional Medical Hospital.

Brayden Coverdale, 21 was pronounced dead at the hospital just before midnight on March 13 after being worked on by paramedics and hospital staff.

“There was a medical call to a beach house, not a condo, a young man there, 21 years of age that was having a medical event,” Lt. Steve Brown of the Orange Beach Police Department said.

Alcohol may be a factor in his death, Brown said.

“I know it’s been reported as alcohol poisoning and it may play a part in it,” Brown said. “We don’t know just yet. He was taken over to Mobile this morning for an autopsy.

“It’s still under investigation. I have no idea if in fact it’s alcohol poisoning or not. It could be an underlying medical condition.”

Orange Beach police have been busy during spring break and currently the University of Alabama, Auburn University and South Alabama, among others, are currently on spring break.

“We’ve had a lot of arrests,” Brown said. “Between March 4 and 11 I know we’ve had 81 arrests for underage possession cases out of 98 arrests. The balance were spring break related.

“But there was a couple of domestic violence cases, three or four DUIs, but we can’t attribute those to spring break because they were older arrestees.”

Brown expects those numbers to continue to grow higher with the instate schools on break.

“You can figure double of that number would be a safe guestimate without looking at hard data,” Brown said. “Last week was a warmup for this week. I know they’ve been busy tonight from what I understand.”

Police in both Orange Beach and Gulf Shores have taken a proactive approach during spring break and these are the types of situations police are trying to limit, Brown said.

“That’s why we’re taking the stance that we are to try and prevent this type of tragic situation from happening,” he said. “To try to ensure that everyone can enjoy the beach safely and hope these things don’t happen. It’s tragic that it did.”