An alleged sexual predator was arrested after police said he carried out a frightening attack in which he broke into the victim's Bronx home and assaulted her as she slept in her bed.
According to police, the suspect got into the 20-year-old woman's apartment near East 230th Street and White Plains Road in the Wakefield neighborhood, sneaking in through a window around 4:30 a.m. on June 29. The victim was asleep in her bed when she was sexually assaulted.
The suspect then took off. In the days that followed, police spoke with neighbors and handed out flyers showing the man they were looking for. Surveillance video showed him walking down the street the night the incident took place.
On Monday, police arrested 30-year-old Claudio Miranda in connection with the alleged attack. He was charged with first-degree criminal sex act, third-degree burglary as well as bribing a witness. Attorney information for Miranda, of the Bronx, was not immediately clear.
That attack occurred about a month after another incident less than a half-mile away. Police said a man put a woman in a chokehold and tried to rape her near East 235th Street and Vireo Drive. A suspect, Miguel Rivera, was identified as a suspect in the incident that is not believed to be related.
Recent NYPD data shows that there have been more rapes and other sex crimes reported in the precinct thus far in 2024 than there were at the same time in 2023 — a 22% and 28% increase, respectively.
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