Grand Prairie police today arrested 33-year-old Gabriel Hernandez Machuca, who is accused of attempting to sexually assault a woman in our neighborhood and breaking into a total of three homes, apparently targeting women.
In the most recent offense, at 8 a.m. Oct. 18, a burglar entered through the window of a home on Vanderbilt, assaulted the female resident and stole her undergarments. The victim told police the burglar tried to sexually assault her. Police say Hernandez admitted to that crime and one other home invasion.
In a case Oct. 16, the burglar broke into a home on Ridgedale, stealing jewelry and women’s underwear. Hernandez also is suspected in a case a month earlier on Palo Pinto in which a woman returned home after being gone 10 minutes to find a man in her garage. The invader fled, and nothing was stolen in that case.
The DMN crime blog has more details about the case on Vanderbilt and Hernandez’s mug shot.
The blog says “Initially, DPD wouldn’t confirm that the suspect in the Vanderbilt break-in attempted to sexually assault the woman living in the house.”
But then someone posted this flyer around Lower Greenville:
On Thursday morning, in broad daylight, an assailant pried open a LOCKED and SEALED window of my home on the 5100 block of Vanderbilt Ave. He attacked me, punched, choked and attempted to sexually assault me. I was able to fight, ultimately preventing the sexual assault from occurring. There have also been other recent burglaries in the vicinity, although it has not yet been determined if they are related.
