MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Miami Beach police are searching for a man who attacked an elderly woman over the weekend inside her apartment building in Miami Beach.
According to a police report, the victim boarded a Miami-Dade County Transit bus near the airport to get home Saturday night and the bus stopped in front of a Walgreens at 41st Street and Pine Tree Drive for a 10-minute break.
The victim told police that she didn’t want to wait, so she got off and decided to walk the rest of the way to her apartment building near 38th Street and Collins Avenue.
According to the police report, the woman exited the elevator on the floor she lives on and a man who was also in the elevator exited with her.
The woman told police that she asked the man whether he was visiting someone in the building. She said he told her that he was on the same bus as her earlier and “began to try to make small talk.”
Police said the man then grabbed the victim’s arms, pinned her against the wall, forcibly removed her mask and began to kiss her as she tried to fight him off.
Another woman who lives on the same floor heard the victim’s screams and thought someone was having a medical emergency.
She told police she opened her front door and screamed at the man, who then nonchalantly walked away and entered the stairwell.
Responding officers met the victim in the front lobby. They said she was visibly shaken and had several scratches on her neck and chin.
The victim’s attacker was described by police as a Hispanic man, who is between the ages of 25 and 34. He is between 5-feet-8 and 5-feet-10 and weighs between 175 and 180 pounds.
“This is a very dangerous man. This is a man that we need to locate. This is a man that we need to take off the streets,” said Officer Ernesto Rodriguez of the Miami Beach Police Department.
Once in custody, he is expected to face a charge of battery on a person 65 or older.
Anyone with information about the man’s identity is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.