Trending

Child pornography found in slide at popular Washington park, police say

PUYALLUP, Wash. — Child pornography, discovered at a popular park in Washington state usually crowded with kids, has Puyallup police searching for the owner of the content and stepping up patrols.

The pornography was found inside a tube slide at Bradley Lake Park, so any child who went down the slide at the busy park would see it. As it turns out, anyone tall enough could see it, too.

“It was just terrifying,” said 16-year-old Brandon, who asked KIRO not to use his last name.

He was watching his 4-year-old niece play at Bradley Lake Park on Friday afternoon. He went down the slide, and while leaned back, saw a sheet filled with a collage of child pornography.

“[I] grabbed it,” Brandon told the television station. “Crumpled it up. Handed it to my sister and said don’t look at it until we got to the car.”

He and his sister said it was too graphic even to photograph.

“I really didn’t know what it was,” Ashley, Brandon’s sister, told KIRO. “And so I looked and was absolutely disgusted by what I had seen and, honestly, forever scarred. And I feel bad for those children. Nobody should have to go through that.”

They took what they found to Puyallup police. Capt. Ryan Portmann said the images raise several troubling questions.

“Is this new child pornography?” he asked. “Is it old child pornography? And then try to identify who possessed and certainly who placed it there in the slide.”

Portmann said police will also step up patrols in the area.

Ashley said she wants something more.

“I think it’s really scary,” she told KIRO. “And it’s really important for possibly cameras at the park.”

The discovery has parents in the area on alert.

“I hope they get some kind of lead because that should never happen again,” Jace Hall, a parent from Spanaway, told KIRO. “Like, no kid should ever be exposed to anything like that.”

Puyallup police said they have mobile cameras in their parks, so they can put them anywhere.

They said they want to figure out if the images are new, which might indicate there are new victims who need to be rescued.