TACOMA, Wash. — The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office arrested 21-year-old Jose Javier Barragan for allegedly breaking and entering into a Tacoma home Tuesday morning, stealing several items, and raping a woman. A spokesperson for the PCSO says the couple is in their 70s.
“This is a very, very terrible situation,” Sgt. Darren Moss Jr. said.
The Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office has charged Barragan with multiple counts of rape and kidnapping, plus robbery, burglary, and attempting to elude police.
Court documents state that Barragan broke into the couple’s home early Tuesday morning.
After the couple woke up and discovered Barragan, he told them “You’re being robbed, shut up, you’re being robbed!”
Moments after that, he allegedly sexually assaulted the woman in another room. Her husband was hooked up to a dialysis machine and unable to help.
The arrest reports state Barragan allegedly got away with the couple’s phones, two Fitbit watches, pair of AirPods, etc. Police were able to track him down in Parkland hours later by tracking the couple’s phones. Once police approached him, he fled on a dirt bike and ran several nearby red lights going nearly 90 mph.
Barragan was caught by deputies and taken into custody. Police were able to recover all of the stolen items at a nearby residence he was staying at.
“We also found the stolen property on the suspect himself. We found more stolen property at the residence where he was,” Moss Jr. said.
And while the details of this case are horrifying, police hope this arrest can bring some form of justice to the victims.
“It’s not something we ever have to go to, but when we do have something terrible like this happens, we want to be the ones to provide some sort of sense of justice and security for the rest of the community to make sure that he can’t do this again,” Moss Jr. said.
Barragan’s bond has been set at $2,000,000.
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