MIAMI SPRINGS, FLA. (WSVN) - Police have arrested the man, they said, tried to sexually batter a sales clerk inside a smoke shop in Miami Springs.
Tyrone Armbrister turned himself into detectives days after 7News aired a story showing surveillance video of the attempted attack.
Armbrister, 30, was charged with sexual battery with no serious injury, false imprisonment, and burglary with assault or battery.
“My main message for everybody out there is if you come into Miami Springs and you do crime: You will get caught. You will be arrested and you will serve the time,” said a detective.
During his court appearance on Monday, 11th Circuit Court Judge Mindy S. Glazer denied Armbrister bond.
According to Miami Springs Police, on Nov. 9, Armbrister went into the Red Eye Smoke Shop on Canal Street, where 20-year-old Ahiline Campos was working as a sales clerk.
Campos said he asked her about cigars, bought a couple and left, only to come back, shirtless and with sinister intentions.
Surveillance video captured parts of the struggle and showed Armbrister attacking the victim and dragging her to a storage room where he tried to sexually assault her.
“He grabbed me by the hands, he started pulling me towards him, and I was like, ‘Please, don’t touch me. Please, don’t do anything to me,’” said Campos.
Police said Armbrister dragged the victim to a storage room and placed a shirt over her face as he touched her breasts and other parts of her body.
She kicked, screamed, and even whacked her attacker with a toilet plunger to get away.
“I wasn’t going to let him do it that’s all I knew,” she said. “I was going to get a plunger. I was going to get whatever I could, but I wasn’t going to let him do it at all and he could’ve done it. He could’ve just punched me and that’s it.”
Campos’s pleas to stop were ignored.
She was able to fend Armbrister off and lied to him about pressing an emergency button to send police.
“If you were able to do it when you were drunk or high you were going to do it when you’re conscience,” she said.
Armbrister took off believing the police were on the way.
Police said he attempted to disguise himself by cutting his hair and shaving his beard.
Days later, police said he would turn himself in, confessed to the crimes and was arrested.
Now Campos is back at work, strictly doing the morning shift but she’s trying to move forward.
“I just know I got to keep going and I got to be strong,” she said.
Campos said she chose to speak up to show other survivors the power of their voice when they share their story.
“There’s a lot of girls out there that’s why I decided to talk cause they could see that. If I had the possibility you guys gave me to speak up I wanted them to know they can too,” she said.
Relief that Armbrister has is behind bars, Campos thanks the police and 7News.
“I think it was pretty much because of the great job that the police did and what you guys have done for me about sharing it to everyone,” said sales clerk Ahiline Campos.
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