MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — Residents of a northeast Miami-Dade neighborhood are on alert as deputies search for a suspect they say tried to rape a 12-year-old girl in her own bedroom.
According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, it happened Friday at the Carmel Lakes community near San Simeon Way and Northeast Fourth Place in the unincorporated Ives Estates area.
5 p.m. report:
Deputies believe the suspect climbed into the girl’s apartment through a window. They said was sleeping in her bedroom when she was awakened by a strange movement on her bed.
“This is really sad to hear,” neighbor Chloe Desilma said.
The victim told deputies she found a person she did not know trying to remove her shorts, and she struck him in the groin and started screaming.
“This is scary,” neighbor Roxana Guembes said.
Deputies were still looking for the suspect as of Wednesday.
He is described as a Black male between 15 and 19 years old, around 5-foot-11 or 6-feet tall with a thin build, last seen wearing a black long sleeve shirt, light-colored or gray pants and a white, full-face ski mask.
“I have a daughter too, she’s 25, but sometimes they’re alone in the parking lot, they come in and out late, so it’s concerning for the safety of our kids,” Guembes said.
Residents said they complain “all the time” about security concerns.
MDSO Detective Jesse Valdivia said the girl may have been targeted.
“Someone could’ve potentially been watching herm” Valdivia said. “Based on the facts, the lengths he took to keep himself concealed, (this) was something obviously he was planning on doing.”
Anyone with information is urged to call MDSO at 305-715-3300 or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.
Meanwhile, Local 10 News called Carmel Lakes’ property management company to ask how they’re addressing residents’ security concerns.
No one answered.
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