MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Police have arrested a man accused of raping a woman visiting from France at a hostel in Miami Beach.
The alleged rape took place at Bikini Hostel along West Avenue overnight on Wednesday.
According to the police report, the tourist thought her boyfriend came into the room only to realize it wasn’t him. Instead, it was 61-year-old Joel Bush.
“I’m shocked! It’s sad,” said a neighbor.
Miami Beach Police arrested Bush the following morning after the victim called 911 and said he entered her room and raped her.
According to police, she and her boyfriend had been out, and she decided to call it a night.
“She left the club alone and walked back to the Bikini Hostel,” according to the arrest report. It went on to say, “She left the door of the room open (ajar) since her boyfriend was coming to meet her.”
The woman told officers she had gone to sleep, but “moments later, she felt a person in the bed with her and thought it was her boyfriend.”
She told him to stop and to leave.
“It makes you really want to watch your surroundings,” the neighbor said.
The victim told detectives she initially “thought it was a nightmare.”
Moments after the 911 call, police arrested Bush in the courtyard of the Bikini Hostel.
“It makes me not want to come to this area anymore,” the neighbor said.
Bush has been jailed at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in West Miami-Dade.
Police said he is from Alabama and has been charged with sexual battery.
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