A former soldier has been arrested in connection to a sexual assault of a six-year-old girl that happened while he was on active duty.
In 2013, a man entered a Dollar Tree store in Kent, Washington approached a child, and committed a sexual assault while the child’s mother was at a register.
The suspect was captured on security footage but fled before police arrived.
Kent Police officers secured the scene and obtained surveillance video, later posting pictures of the suspect. However, the suspect was never identified and the case went unsolved for several years.
On August 6, 2024, Kent Police received a DNA match from the evidence collected at the scene.
The DNA matched 31-year-old Nicholas Hargrave, a recently registered sex offender in Texas, as the suspect.
His DNA was in a national database due to a recent conviction for a crime against children in Texas.
At the time of the assault in Washington, he was assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.
Hargrave was eventually arrested in October 2024, according to Fox 13.
His bail was set at $100,000 and he was ordered not to leave the state even if he posts bail.
According to a legal advocate, who spoke on behalf of the victim’s family, Hargrave ejaculated on the young girl in the Dollar Tree store.
“This man should not be allowed to remain free in society with this criminal history, any child is a target. He has not stopped,” they said in court. “He walked into that store that day in 2013 and openly touched himself and ejaculated on our daughter.”
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