A Honduran national has been indicted on multiple child sex-abuse charges after investigators say he targeted young girls in separate incidents inside a Long Island retail store over several months.
According to police and prosecutors, Jimmy Harry Velasquez Gomez, 44, was taken into custody after surveillance footage allegedly showed him groping girls between the ages of seven and eleven inside a TJ Maxx in Suffolk County. Prosecutors said the incidents occurred in April, September, and October, each involving a child who had stepped away from her parents while browsing the toy section.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said the allegations represent serious threats to public safety.
“The charges against this defendant describe disturbing acts of sexual abuse that strike at the heart of our community’s sense of safety,” Tierney said.
The first incident was reported on April 19, when a seven-year-old girl told her mother that a man had approached her and grabbed her buttocks, prompting him to flee when the child alerted her parent.
On Sept. 20, police said an eleven-year-old reported a similar encounter, stating that Gomez touched her as he walked past.
The third incident occurred on Oct. 29, when prosecutors said Gomez followed a nine-year-old through the store, rubbed himself over his clothing while watching her, and later touched her before leaving the area.
Gomez’s attorney, Joseph Hanshe, previously claimed his client only “brushed along” the children while trying to move through the aisle. Investigators said surveillance footage from all three dates showed deliberate behavior consistent with the reported incidents.
Gomez, a Honduran national, was arraigned on Nov. 14 on charges including first- and second-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. He is being held on bail of up to $3.5 million.
