DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Two women who say they were touched inappropriately by a stranger while grocery shopping say they are relieved police made an arrest.
They were also shocked to learn that police say he carries a gun.
DeKalb County police arrested Jerome Grogan, 27, in the attacks. They say he’s a suspect in other similar cases.
Channel 2’s Tom Jones spoke to the first victim who came forward after she said she was slapped hard on her backside in the Kroger on Flat Shoals Parkway. Now, a second victim says something similar happened to her.
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“So, I’m reaching to get an item off the shelf,” said Brenda Sessions. “And I heard this big pow.”
She said she does Instacart and was at the Publix on Flat Shoals Parkway recently.
She says a strange man slapped her hard on her backside, and told her he didn’t mean to do it. She snapped photos of him as he tried to hide his face.
“I told him, I say, ‘I’m going to call the police.’ I say, ‘You’re going to jail,’”
Police say they have now arrested Grogan.
Police say he has hit women on their backsides in grocery stores in the area on four occasions since last September.
Mae St. Julien says she was shopping on aisle three in the Kroger when someone violently slapped her on the backside.
“I’m saying I don’t know this person. Why would you do this to me?” St. Julien asked.
St. Julien says she went public with what happened because she says she didn’t want it to happen to anyone else. So, when she learned police arrested Grogan, it made her feel safer.
“I’m just so happy that he was caught. I’m just relieved,” she said.
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Police say when they arrested Grogan, he had on the same clothes as he did in one of the attacks captured on video. They also say he had a gun he wasn’t supposed to have.
Both women say that’s scary, and St. Julien says she’s glad she didn’t pursue him.
Sessions says Grogan touching women inappropriately is a violation that leaves deep scars.
“And that trauma never goes away. That trauma never goes away,” Sessions said.
St. Julien says her attacker needs prayer and mental help. But she says he needs to be locked up for what he did.
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that he stays off the street,” she said.
Grogan faces three counts of sexual battery and possession of a weapon by a first offender. That means he’s been in trouble before.
Police say they are investigating other similar incidents where Grogan is suspected of sexually attacking women while they shopped.
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