Michael Hunter
/ Courtesy: Colorado Springs Police Department
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Colorado Springs Police officers arrested a man Wednesday who is accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in a mall store in September.
According to officers, 27-year-old Michael Hunter sexually assaulted the girl at Chapel Hills Mall Sept. 15.
They say two 12-year-old girls were in the mall shopping and just outside the pet store, Hunter grabbed the butt of one of the girls. After asking her friend if she was the one who touched her, the two realized a Subway employee was walking away. Detectives looked through mall surveillance video and arrested Hunter at the Police Operations Center Wednesday on a sexual assault on a child charge.
Police say it was the girl's quick response in telling both her mother and mall security about the assault that allowed them to find Hunter so quickly.
While Hunter's actions aren't as extreme as other assaults, legislation changed in the past few years to include "touching of the buttocks" under the umbrella of "sexual assault." CSPD explained that this is to ensure a precedent is not set to allow any inappropriate actions on young children to be seen as acceptable.
"You never know if he's going to end it there, or escalate it and hurt someone else," said Babara Miller, CSPD Public Information Officer.
Miller says it's important for parents to tell their children what is wrong and crosses a line, despite it being a somewhat "taboo" topic.
"We want to teach our children, especially young girls that it's unacceptable for someone to inappropriately touch someone," she added.
CSPD says they applaud her efforts, and hope other girls follow her example to speak out on sexual assault to ensure perpetrators are caught.
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