COVINGTON, Ga. — A man has been charged with groping a teenage girl in the bicycle section of a metro Atlanta Walmart.
Security cameras caught him in the act and as he ran out of the store.
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Channel 2′s Tom Regan was at the Walmart in Covington Thursday, where police said the incident was a brazen act that traumatized the teenage victim.
Police arrested Ronald Dean Smith, 29, on Wednesday night.
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Police said Smith didn’t do any shopping or even any browsing. Video showed him immediately walk back to the bicycle section where he spotted a 16-year-old on her own.
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“(He) just approached a random subject, grabbed her in the chest area and then immediately is running from the store,” Lt. Daniel Digby with Covington Police said.
At one point, Smith knocked over a pallet of merchandise trying to scramble to get out of the store as quickly as possible.
“It was almost like he was on a mission to go to the store and unfortunately do something like the act that he committed,” Digby said.
Police posted part of the video on social media, which drew tips that helped investigators identify the alleged assailant.
Other shoppers were appalled by the incident.
“I think it’s horrible, happening at a store in public,” one shopper said. “You aren’t safe anywhere you go.”
“Young adults or children should not be messed with like that. It’s just cruel,” another shopper said.
Smith has been charged with sexual battery. Police said they are encouraging anyone else who may have been victimized to contact investigators.
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