Apartment residents say man broke into homes, exposed himself

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Parents of a 10-year-old girl who someone tried to sexually assault after getting into their home said their apartment complex didn't warn neighbors a similar attack happened three nights prior.

Keitha Cook said her daughter was asleep on the sofa in the living room of their home at the Marquis Ridge complex on Covington Highway in DeKalb County early Monday morning when a man got in through a first-floor window after removing the screen.

Cook said the man exposed himself and tried to sexually assault her daughter.

"(He) told her if she screamed 'I'm going to shoot you.' She said she didn't see a gun so she screamed anyway," Cook told Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri.

She said the man left through the front door as she and the girl's father called police. Later, while handing out fliers to other neighbors, they met a woman who experienced the same thing three nights earlier. 

"I woke up to a man dressed in black with a ski mask on," Ashley Murray told Viteri.

She said she and her girlfriend fell asleep watching a movie in the living room. A man came in their first-floor window, which she said was closed and believed was also locked.

The man exposed himself to the women and left when they woke and confronted him.

"He didn't finish the job at my house, he didn't finish it here. How do we know he's not coming back?" Cook said.

Cook said if the apartment complex had warned residents this may not have happened to her daughter.

To make matters worse, she said management called police when the girl's father handed out fliers to neighbors saying he wasn't allowed to do so.

After that, the complex sent out a notice saying an incident involving a "peeping suspect occurred on or near our community."

"This letter is a lie," said Cook. "Because it's not a peeping suspect, it's a predator out there that's entering people's houses and trying to attack them."

Management at Marquis Ridge told Channel 2 they had no comment on these incidents.

DeKalb County police are investigating.

WSBTV