HOUSTON – Halloween morning at a two-story apartment off Broadway Street near Hobby Airport turned scarier than ever imagined for two young mothers who are roommates.
Both of them, speaking only to KPRC 2, asked for their identity to be protected out of fear. Four kids and the two mothers were home at the time of the break-in.
“Yo estaba profundamente dormida. Yo pensaba que la persona que estaba en mi cama era mi esposo,” one of the women said, translated by a neighbor as: “She was dead asleep ... she feels somebody touching all over her thinking it was her husband. And then so she wakes up and she sees the guy.”
The guy had chased a 7-year-old girl up the stairs of the apartment at 8400 Broadway after busting through the front door, she said.
He ended up in her bedroom, where she still slept with her two younger kids.
She jumped out of bed, pushed the stranger, and ran downstairs screaming for help. Her roommate was awake and heard the commotion from a downstairs bathroom.
“Mi niña empezó a gritar y mi niño también a decir, ‘Mami, mami, alguien esta aquí en la casa’,” the roommate said, translated by a neighbor as: “She heard her daughter scream and say, ‘Mommy, mommy, there’s a man in the house.’”
The man stayed in the bed until Houston Police arrived. The neighbor, who also asked to not be identified, called 911.
“I seen them outside here, just freezing out here in the morning with no jacket, they’re just freezing with their eyeballs popped out,” she said.
Police arrested 40-year-old Bashiru Kargbo, records show at 9:34 a.m. on Tuesday. He’s charged with burglary with the intent to commit sexual assault.
“He was out on a bond for criminal trespass that he bonded October 29th, and then this offense date is October 31st,” a hearing officer said during his probable cause court appearance on Wednesday morning.
According to court records, Kargbo was arrested Oct. 28 for criminal trespass and got out on a personal bond the next day. As a bond condition, prosecutors requested that he be barred from being at the address of the same apartment complex.
Neighbors showed KPRC 2 videos of Houston Police talking to Kargbo around the time of the first arrest.
It wasn’t his first run in with the law, as records show he has a lengthy criminal history in Harris County dating back more than a decade.
“It’s scary,” the neighbor said. “There’s no words.”
The mothers and their young children are especially shook up, worried Kargbo may come back again.
“Yo quiero justicia. Justicia con él porque él no fuera. Ha hecho eso conmigo? Me tocó mis cosas íntimas. Y eso es un delito para mí,” the woman said, translated by the neighbor: “That’s against the law, what he did, and she wants justice.”
Prosecutors asked for Kargbo’s bond to be set at $250,000 but the hearing officer set it at $60,000.
He is scheduled to face a judge on Thursday morning.