HOUSTON – A 32-year-old man has been arrested and charged with attempted sexual assault after a woman came forward about an attack at a Clear Lake grocery store.
Christopher Jerrod Mathews is now facing the charges.
Cassy Burton came forward to tell her story to Channel 2 about what happened Wednesday morning at the Foodarama in southeast Houston off Fuqua Street.
"He intruded my personal space," Burton said. "This guy needs to be caught."
Burton was minding her own business, trying to figure out what she was going to buy to make dinner Monday night but she says a man wandering around near her had other plans.
VIDEO: Man accused of groping woman faces judge
"All of a sudden I feel something reach under me, in between my legs and grabbed," Burton said.
Out of nowhere, she said, she never saw it coming.
"Out of shock I just froze and I see the guy standing there and he's just staring at me like, 'what are you going to do?'" Burton recalled. "I started yelling (at him), I was like, 'don't ever touch me, ever.'"
The man walked away and proceeded to the check-out counter to buy his lone bag of sugar.
"Normally it's just instinct takes over," said Coy Mayes, Foodarama's store director.
After Burton had yelled to Mayes for help, he stepped in and told the man he needed to leave before the man denied touching Burton.
"My whole purpose is the safety of our customers," Mayes said.
As the man strolled out to his car, he gives a convenient glance at the surveillance cameras, before driving off in a dark-colored van.
Burton said she felt violated.
"I think that anybody else who experiences this type of thing and is scared to say anything needs to definitely stand up for themselves, for what they believe in," Burton said.
Kemah police confirmed with Channel 2 investigators there are looking into a similar case that occurred on Friday at a Walmart. Police have not officially connected that case to the Houston-area ones but they are looking into it.