PONTIAC (WWJ) — A 13-year-old Pontiac boy is in police custody after a string of home invasions targeting young girls in Pontiac and Detroit.
Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard announced at a press conference Friday afternoon the teen was taken into custody earlier this week and is believed to be responsible for nine home invasions in Pontiac and two in Detroit.
The teen’s name has not been released and it was not immediately clear what charges he would face. He was expected to be arraigned at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Bouchard said.
The case came to light earlier this week when the sheriff’s office shared a photo of a suspect who had entered a Pontiac home, armed with a knife, and choked a 10-year-old girl. At the time officials said they were investigating at least three other similar attempted or successful home invasions where teen or adolescent girls lived.
Authorities said earlier this week four cases in Pontiac they believed to be linked happened between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Dec. 23, Jan. 25, Jan. 26 and, most recently, Tuesday.
The latest home invasion happened around 4 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 3 in the 100 block of N. Anderson Street, according to the sheriff’s office. Authorities say the suspect, wearing a ski mask and armed with a knife, choked a 10-year-old girl who had been sleeping.
The suspect was “apparently frightened off by the girl’s screams” and fled. The girl’s mother saw the suspect, wearing all black clothing, running down the stairs and out of the home, the sheriff’s office said earlier this week.
On Friday Bouchard said the alleged home invasions date back at least two years, with some of them happening last summer, though exact locations were not disclosed. Only recently did police begin connecting the incidents, Bouchard said.
Bouchard said the suspect — who he described as “a tall 13-year-old” — had been gaining information about possible victims in the homes, but it did not appear he knew the potential victims.
The sheriff said “this is the worst nightmare for any parent that somebody might be trying to climb through their window to get after their kids, especially a young teenage girl."
It was not immediately clear how the teen suspect was able to get between Pontiac and Detroit or how he got around to different locations in Pontiac. Bouchard said the teen’s parents are cooperating with the investigation.
“Tragically we’ve seen children do very dangerous and violent things, scary things. The moniker of a child doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not capable of doing something very terrible to another person, as we saw at Oxford High School,” Bouchard said.
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