Man charged with groping young girls in Lakewood stores
A 38-year-old man is accused of groping two young girls in Lakewood stores.
On Tuesday, Pierce County prosecutors charged him with second-degree child molestation and fourth-degree assault. He was expected to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon.
The incidents took place Jan. 12 at two separate big-box stores.
In the first one, a mother called police to report that she and her 10-year-old daughter were at the store on Bridgeport Way West shopping for school supplies. After they split up to get different items, the girl ran back to her mother and told her a man squeezed her “bottom,” records say.
Police checked the store’s surveillance video and spotted the man following the girl down an aisle. The groping was not captured on the footage but did show the man leaving the aisle shortly after following the girl.
The girl then ran for her mother and could be seen “clinging to her arm,” prosecutors wrote in charging papers.
About a half hour later, another woman called police to report that a man had groped her 12-year-old daughter at a store in Lakewood Towne Center.
It was the first time the mother allowed her daughter to search for a store item on her own, and the girl called her mother frantically asking where she was.
The girl pointed to the man and said he groped her. The mother confronted the man and followed him out of the store until he took off running across the parking lot.
Surveillance footage from the store showed the man touching the girl as she tried to back away.
Officers found the man, who allegedly admitted to groping both girls because “he was overcome by an impulse,” court records say.
He also told police, “I’m eager to fight this demon,” and admitted to groping other young girls, prosecutors wrote in charging papers.
Lakewood police are investigating the other incidents.
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 1:14 PM.
