DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A man accused of groping and slapping multiple strangers at metro Atlanta grocery stores is now in custody.
DeKalb County police arrested 27-year-old Jerome Grogan this week. They say he is the same suspect connected to four separate assaults at Publix and Kroger stores.
The items police say connected him to the crimes, LIVE on Channel 2 Action News starting at 4:00 p.m.
Channel 2’s Tom Jones first spoke with one of the victims on Feb. 27.
Mae St. Julien says she thought she was safe while shopping. She soon found out that was far from the truth.
“It made a loud noise. like a gunshot almost,” she told Jones on Channel 2 Action News at 6:00 p.m.
The 73-year-old great grandmother says she was pushing her basket on aisle 3 in the Kroger in Ellenwood on Flat Shoals Parkway Feb. 26 around 4:30 p.m.
“I’m just minding my business shopping for a recipe I found on Tik Tok,” St. Julien said.
That’s when a young man came up behind her and smacked her hard on her backside. She says her attacker then seemed proud of what he had just done.
“He turned around and kind of smirked and just ran off,” she said.
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St. Julien says she was stunned, hurt, traumatized and angry.
When police arrived, she says an officer told her she had just finished investigating a similar incident where a man attacked two women at the Publix across the street.
Police said they connected Grogan to two other assaults that happened on Sept. 11, 2025 at a Kroger on Wesley Chapel Road and on Sept. 3, 2025 at the same Publix on Flakes Mill Road.
Police are investigating other cases against Grogan. He currently faces three counts of sexual battery and one count of possession of a firearm.
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