Authorities have arrested a man accused of breaking into the Long Island apartment of a 74-year-old woman and sexually assaulting her last week.
Jawarren Booker, 29, of Ridge, is charged with first-degree rape and first-degree burglary in the brutal attack on the victim, which took place early Friday morning in Holbrook, according to Suffolk County police.
Investigators say Booker entered the victim’s apartment through a window between 6:15 and 7:15 a.m. and confronted her as she sat on her couch.
He then physically and sexually assaulted her before fleeing the scene in what Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina described as a crime that can “cause you to question your faith in humanity.”
Once Booker left, the woman called 911 and was taken to a nearby hospital.
Booker was arrested Tuesday morning in the Bronx following an “extensive investigation and search,” Catalina said Wednesday at a press conference at police headquarters in Yaphank. He did not provide details on how investigators identified Booker as a suspect.
According to the commissioner, Booker had been living in the same Holbrook apartment complex, but it’s not yet known whether he knew the victim.
Booker was held overnight at the Sixth Precinct and was scheduled to be arraigned in First District Court in Central Islip on Wednesday.
Online court records show that Booker has a criminal record but has never been charged with a sex crime.
