A 13-year-old boy is in custody because Oakland County deputies believe he is linked to the violent break-ins and assaults targeting young girls in Pontiac.
Authorities believe he is connected to nine break-ins in Pontiac and two more in Detroit, dating back to 2022. Sources say the teen confessed.
“This is the worst nightmare for any parent: that somebody might be trying to climb in through a window to get after their kids, especially a young teenage girl,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.
The boy’s parent has been cooperating with the investigation, and the case has been handed to the prosecutor’s office, according to Bouchard.
The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office says that the teen is currently at Children’s Village.
They are reviewing the case and said “we are being very deliberate and thoughtful with charges.”
According to the prosecutor’s office, this is a very complicated case because of all the incidents, and because they are in different areas.
A charging decision could come early next week.
Tips from the community led to the 13-year-old’s arrest. The most recent break-in happened at the home of a 10-year-old girl in the 100 block of North Anderson Street.
Authorities said the attacker was armed with a knife, dressed in black, and wore a ski mask while breaking into the home and choking a 10-year-old girl while she slept.
Sources told Local 4’s Erika Erickson on Friday that the 13-year-old boy lives in the Pontiac area and appears to be responsible for another break-in in Detroit on Jan. 13, 2025.
That break-in occurred in the area of Hubbell and Schoolcraft, which is on the west side of the city. Sources also say DNA evidence has been recovered and a knife was left behind at the break-in at the home on North Anderson Street.
One of the victims, Monica Smith, a mother of five who lived on Anderson, said she is too terrified to return home after the masked intruder broke in earlier this week.
Smith told Local 4 she awoke around 4 a.m. Feb. 4 to her 10-year-old daughter, Kaylee, screaming. At first, she thought it was a nightmare, but then she saw a man flee from Kaylee’s room.
“I’m like, ‘Kaylee, what’s wrong?' She didn’t say. She kept on screaming,” Smith said. “I see a guy just shoot out from her room, and then Kaylee started yelling that the guy was choking her.”
Police believe the teen was targeting homes with young girls, entering through unlocked or damaged windows.
“He took the screen out, pulled it up, and my furniture was pushed up,” Smith said.
It appeared the attacker pushed garbage cans up to the window to get inside. Police suspected his motive was not burglary but rather access to the children, and warned that his behavior was escalating, urging people to lock windows and doors this week.
Three other break-ins happened between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Dec. 23, Jan. 25, and Jan. 26.
The homes were in the 600 block of Northway, 100 block of North Edith, and 100 block of North Marshall.
So far, nothing has been stolen during these break-ins, and police believe the teen was specifically targeting homes with young girls.
It’s believed the same teen broke into the home of Shawntay Pryor and assaulted her daughter back on Jan. 25.
“This young man, whoever it is, threatened her with a knife and some scissors and told her to take her clothes off or he would kill her,” Pryor said.
Watch the full press conference in the video below:
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