GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The 5-year-old was playing hide-and-seek with her friends when it happened. Now, the man accused hurling racial slurs at the child while urinating on her as she hid in the bushes is behind bars.
Michigan State Police records show David Allen Dean, 60, of Grand Rapids was arrested Wednesday on the charge of felony sex offense excluding assault and commercializing.
Arrested, but not formally charged, investigators will not confirm the suspect's identity until he is arraigned.
Katrena Rapier identified Dean as the suspect. Her two young boys were playing with the alleged victim and her brother in the parking lot near West Leonard Library around 6 p.m. Wednesday.
"Her eyes were really big, like she was about to cry," Rapier said.
Soaking wet and scared, Rapier said, the young girl returned to her home with the three other children after the suspect walked away.
Rapier said the other kids explained a man snuck up behind the girl and peed on her head.
"Her hair smelled like nothing but urine and it was like soaked, her whole shirt front to back was soaked," Rapier said.
Rapier's two boys who witnessed the incident say the man called the 5-year-old girl the n-word. The children identified Dean as the suspect to police.
“I really can't understand like why," Rapier said of the incident. "We see him every day.”
A registered sex offender, Dean is listed as "non-compliant" on State Police's sex offender registry.
Records there also show that Dean lives on the same street as both the 5-year-old, and Rapier. It was to Rapier's house that the children ran after their hide-and-seek game was cut short.
Convicted of criminal sexual assault against a child under the age of 13 in 1997, Dean has a long criminal history that includes two counts of indecent exposure in 1994 and attempted criminal sexual assault in 1981.
Rapier, who says she often sees Dean walking around the neighborhood, was unaware of his sex offender status.
"I never knew that he was capable of doing all that to a 5-year-old child," Rapier said. "She's basically a baby she didn't want to come out of the house after that she was just afraid."
The suspect behind bars, Rapier says the little girl is still scared the man will find her again.
Grand Rapids Police said the Kent County Prosecutor's Office is still reviewing the case and state law to determine what charges should be filed.
The suspected is expected to be arraigned in Kent County 61st District Court Thursday.
Rapier said the incident both worried and angered her.
“That's like the worst, lowest thing you can do," Rapier said. "She's a 5-year-old, just a child period, it just makes me angry.”
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