Man charged with sexually assaulting 8-year-old boy in restroom of Portage Park store
A man from south suburban Crete has been charged with sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy in the restroom of a store in the Portage Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side of Chicago.
Darren Powell, 19, has been charged with one count of predatory criminal sexual assault and one count of unlawful restraint.
Cook County prosecutors said, on May 29, Powell was inside DD's Discounts retail store in the 3900 block of North Cicero Avenue, when he saw two brothers, ages 8 and 11, shopping with their mother and toddler sister.
While the boys were looking at toys away from their mother, he lured them to the store's restroom, where the 11-year-old boy entered a stall and locked it behind him, and the 8-year-old boy stayed outside, according to prosecutors.
Powell tried to open the stall door, and then began fondling himself, frightening the 11-year-old, who tried to leave, but Powell blocked him from getting out.
As the boy pleaded with Powell not to touch him, an unidentified man entered the bathroom, unaware of what was happening, and went into an empty stall, prosecutors said. The boy used it as an opportunity to flee the bathroom, but before he could tell his younger brother what happened, the 8-year-old entered the bathroom and began using a urinal.
As the 8-year-old was using the urinal, Powell began to grope him, grabbing his genitals, before the man in the stall interrupted him and asked him what he was doing, prosecutors said.
The 8-year-old then ran out of the bathroom to find his mother and tell her what happened.
Powell fled the store before the victim's mother could find him, so she told the store's staff what happened, and asked to see surveillance video of him.
The next day, the boys' mother went to a police station to file a report, and police later issued a community alert about the attack, including surveillance images of Powell.
One of Powell's relatives recognized him from screenshots of the surveillance video and turned him in. He was arrested on Thursday and made his first court appearance on Saturday, when a judge ordered him held in jail while he awaits trial.
Prosecutors said Powell was investigated for a similar attack on a 9-year-old boy at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in 2024 while the boy was on a summer cap field trip, but was never charged.
