Weston

Weston Man Offers Woman Help Then Rapes and Robs Her: Police

Tamarick Shanard Cruz, 36, is facing 10 charges including sexual battery and robbery

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A Weston man who offered to help a stranded woman is facing charges for allegedly raping and robbing her.

The woman had just been evicted about 11 p.m. Jan. 17 from a room she had rented in Hollywood and was on the phone asking some friends in Aventura to help her, according to the police report.

Tamarick Shanard Cruz, 36, saw her on the street, drove up in a black Nissan SUV and offered her a ride, but she declined, the report stated.

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Tamarick Shanard Cruz

She was speaking Russian to her friends on the phone, but Cruz was persistent. She eventually gave in and asked him to drive her to Aventura, investigators said.   

While on the phone, her friends had activated the GPS tracking feature and told her, in Russian, that Cruz was driving in the opposite direction on Interstate 95 toward Fort Lauderdale.

Cruz offered to rent her a room for $500 that night and stopped the car. He put his hand on her cheek, got close to her and said, “Let me help you” and “Just one kiss,” the report stated.

Before long, Cruz was sexually assaulting her while she was “begging him to stop.” She was afraid to make any noise because Cruz said, “If you gonna scream, I’m gonna cut your tongue,” investigators said.

He allegedly grabbed her by the neck and threatened to kill her if she went to the police.

Before driving away, he took her backpack with about $1,700 dollars cash and her cellphone, and dropped her off in the 500 block of Northwest Seventh Street in Fort Lauderdale, police said.

She walked to a gas station, borrowed a phone and called her friends. They were already out trying to locate her by driving to the last location where her phone pinged before the battery died.

Police were called in and she told them she had been robbed. She also confided to her friends that she was raped. DNA samples were taken from her and her clothing and sent to the crime lab, the report stated.

Detectives said they were able to watch surveillance videos from neighboring businesses and identified the Nissan SUV.

By April, the DNA test results identified Cruz as the attacker and he was arrested June 7.

He is also a suspect in another sexual battery case that is still open, and he was charged in March with an armed robbery and false imprisonment of a child under 13, police said.

Court records show he’s classified as a career criminal who remains in the Broward County Jail without bond.

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