Police investigating 3 separate sexual assault incidents at Snellville Target
SNELLVILLE, Ga. - Snellville police are investigating three different incidents targeting women at the same Target store.
All three cases happened at the store on the 1900 block of Scenic Highway in the last few months.
The first instance happened on the night of March 30. That night, a woman reported that a man she didn't know approached her near the grocery section of the store and "touched her genitals and ran away," the Snellville Police Department's report reads.
The officer in the case writes that he found the suspect, identified as Devon Breandre Thomas, near the store's parking lot. When confronted, the man told the officer "he ‘was not bound by our laws’" and ran, forcing the officer and another who had just arrived to use their Tasers to stop him.
Thomas now faces a charge of sexual battery.
Illegal recordings in Target fitting rooms
The other two police reports both involved cases of women allegedly being recorded while in the store's fitting rooms and bathrooms. Both reports happened in May.
In the first, which happened on the morning of May 1, the victim told police she was trying on a top in the fitting room, looked down, and saw a cell phone pointed at her from under the door.
Using facial recognition software, officers reportedly connected a man seen on Target's security footage with both the Facebook page and a previous booking photo of Josue Antonio Gomez. Flock cameras also captured Gomez's father's truck near the Target before the incident, officials said.
Later that evening, Gomez was arrested and charged with Peeping Toms and knowingly using a device to record under or through clothing.
The other Peeping Tom incident happened just a week later. In that case, the victim reported seeing a man record her when she was in a restroom stall. After confronting the man, the victim said he fled. He remains on the run.
The victim described the man as wearing blue and yellow Crocs with black or blue sweatpants.
The incident remains under investigation. Police are working with the store to see if they can learn anything from the security footage.
If you have any information about any of the three incidents, call the Snellville Police Department.
