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Man With Machete Sexually Assaults Woman In Random Attack, N.H. Police Say

MANCHESTER, N.H. (CBS) – A woman woke up to a man with a machete sexually assaulting in her in an apartment in Manchester, New Hampshire Friday morning, police said. The suspect, 24-year-old Jose Polanco Diaz, has been arrested.

Officers were called to the apartment on Auburn Street just after 9 a.m. The woman's boyfriend told them she woke up to a man attacking her, but she was able to get away and get out of the apartment. She said the man had a machete.

"She had woken up to a man she did not know, and he was sexually assaulting her," said Heather Hamel, the public information officer of the Manchester Police Department. "She was able to struggle with him and get him off of her and escape the apartment."

Jose Polanco Diaz
Jose Polanco Diaz. (Photo credit Manchester Police)

Police released a surveillance photo Friday afternoon. "Through their investigation police were able to make contact with Diaz and he was taken into custody," Manchester Police said Friday night.

manchester nh suspect
Manchester Police say the man in this surveillance image is the one they're looking for in the attack. (Photo credit: Manchester, N.H. Police)

Police believe it was a random attack. "We know that he is a stranger to these people, so this was not targeted in any way," Hamel said. "It just appears like it's a stranger that broke into somebody's apartment and then assaulted them."

Diaz has been charged with Aggravated Felonious Sexual Assault, Burglary, and Criminal Threatening, all of which are felonies.

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