New Jersey

Cops Arrest Suspect in Brutal NJ Gunpoint Beating, Sex Assault

What to Know

  • The woman was walking on the street in Highland Park when a man with a gun came up to her
  • The man forced her into the basement of a nearby building and beat and sexually assaulted her
  • A homeowner called police when she found the woman on her front porch

A 23-year-old New Jersey man has been arrested in the brutal beating and sex assault of a Highland Park woman earlier this month, authorities say.

Middlesex County prosecutors and Highland Park police say Brandon Cox of Franklin Township has been charged with 16 counts of the Feb. 19 attack on Harper Avenue. 

Cox, who was arrested last week on an unrelated charge, was charged in the attack after the investigation into the sex assault.

Authorities say the 36-year-old victim was walking with a child when the suspect approached her at gunpoint, forced her into the basement of a nearby apartment building and repeatedly punched her and sexually assaulted her. 

He ran away, and a neighbor called police after the victim ran to the neighbor's home following the attack. She was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Newark. 

Additional details about the baby that was said to be with the woman weren't immediately known. 

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