Authorities arrested a 32-year-old man after he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman while she was inside a store, the Westminster Police Department said Tuesday.
The incident occurred on Nov. 8, at 7:42 a.m. at the store in the 13500 block of Beach Boulevard in Westminster.
Police said a 43-year-old woman, a Garden Grove resident, entered the store and walked toward the laundry aisle.
When the woman bent down to grab an item, the man, “without provocation and against her will, grabbed her buttocks with both hands,” according to a statement released by the Westminster police.
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The woman immediately stood up and threw an item at him.
The man, identified as Aaron Aubrey Navies, told the victim, “you don’t have rights because you’re Mexican and I can do what I want to,” police said in the statement.
The woman began speaking in Spanish “in disgust, and Navies stuck his tongue out at her and moved it up and down in what she perceived as sexual in nature."
The incident was immediately reported, and Westminster Police officers arrived at the scene and located Navies, who was still in the store. The man was arrested for hate crimes and sexual assault.
Westminster Police is asking anyone with information to call authorities. Witnesses can also call Orange County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-TIP-OCCS or www.occrimestoppers.org.
