Police say a Bensalem mother managed to fight off a man who broke into her apartment and sexually assaulted her while her daughter was sleeping.
"This woman is incredibly brave that she was able to fight him off," said Bensalem Public Safety Director Fred Harran. "Probably a mother's instinct jumping in, and protecting her daughter."
Officers responded to an apartment at Lafayette Gardens along Bristol Pike in Bensalem around 5 a.m. Saturday, said Bensalem Police.
The victim and her daughter were asleep in the apartment when she awoke to find an intruder, said investigators.
"My first memory is I was awake and there was a man in my living room," said the woman, who we are not identifying.
The victim fought back in an attempt to get the intruder to leave. He then hit her, grabbed her by the throat and sexually assaulted her, police said. The woman then managed to get him out of the house and he was last seen on video running away from her apartment.
"I don't know how long he was in the house," she said. "As I was pushing him out the door he tried to grope me. My daughter waking up, that was the key that scared him enough to be able to give me the strength and the opportunity to get him out of the house but it happened so fast."
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Investigators found surveillance video from a Sunoco gas station at Frankford Avenue and Knights Road in Northeast Philadelphia that shows the suspect, said police. The woman said the man was wearing the same brown coat he was wearing in the surveillance video when he sexually assaulted her. She also said she never met the man before.
The intruder -- described as standing between 5-foot, 7-inches and 5-foot, 10-inches tall who wore glasses and smelled of body odor -- could have entered through an open window or an unlocked door, said police.
If you have any information, you can contact the Bensalem Police at 215-633-3719.
