CHICAGO — A man suspected of fondling a 10-year-old girl in Logan Square has been charged.
Maurice Rocquemore, 34, was charged with felony aggravated sex abuse with a person under 13. Rocquemore was arrested Wednesday after a WGN reporter and photojournalist spotted him and alerted authorities.
Police said two girls, ages 7 and 10, were sitting on a porch on the 2500 block of West Lyndale Avenue around 5 p.m. Monday when a man came up to them and started talking to them. The man then fondled the 10-year-old’s genitals, according to police. The man then walked away.
Randy Patterson, the 7-year-old’s father, said the two girls were sitting on his porch when his daughter’s friend, the 10-year-old, asked what time it was. His daughter went inside to check, and when she returned, the suspect had already fondled the 10-year-old.
Patterson said he was so shocked it happened and said he was even more in shock that the suspect walked right by his house the very next day.
Police released a photo of the suspect Tuesday night and described him as an African American man, about 20 to 30 years old, with black hair in cornrows who was last seen wearing purple-framed sunglasses.
While reporting on the incident Wednesday morning, WGN Reporter Erik Runge and Photojournalist Mike Hudak spotted who they believed was the man, wearing purple-framed glasses, and followed him for about a block.
Runge then confronted him.
“Did you see a couple of girls Monday?,” Runge asked the man. “Maybe,” he replied.
Runge then asked the man, “Did you touch any of them?” The man then replied and said “no.”
Runge then showed the man the photos Chicago police had released of the suspect and asked, “is that you?” In which the man responded, “Yea, that’s me.”
Runge says he and Hudak called police and followed the man on foot for more than about a half-mile, and directed officers to him. He was then arrested by police.
The man told WGN he doesn’t live in the area, but works there.
The father of the 10-year-old girl said she’s shaken up, but otherwise OK.
Rocquemore is due in court Thursday.