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FONTANA, Cali. (KTLA) — Fontana police on Wednesday released surveillance video of a naked intruder accused of masturbating in a sleeping teenage girl’s bedroom as they searched for additional victims of the suspect.
The video’s release came one day after police announced the arrest of 21-year-old Jonathan Emmanuel Ward in connection with an incident last week.
They also revealed at a news conference Wednesday morning that investigators are now aware of at least three total victims in the case — with others still likely out there.
“We believe that there are many additional victims who might have not reported this crime,” Fontana Police Department Officer Jay Sayeghsaid at the news conference.
Ward was arrested on Aug. 30, hours after a woman reported a naked man had entered a home in the 14100 block of Stanislaus Court and masturbated in the bedroom of her sleeping 13-year-old daughter, according to police.
Newly released surveillance video from inside the residence shows the suspect in the two-story house without clothes on. At one point, the naked man looks directly at the camera and put a finger over his lips, signaling for quiet.
He then walks up the stairs and, after going into one room, appears to make his way to the teen’s bedroom.
The victim woke up to find the man looming over her and screamed, causing him to run out and leave the home, according to police.
Her screams could be heard in the surveillance video, which also showed the still-nude man fleeing.
“It’s disgusting what he did,” Sayegh said.
Ward was arrested later that night at his home in Fontana. He was booked into the West Valley Detention Center and is being held on a $1 million bail enhancement from a similar case last year.
Sayegh didn’t offer many details in the 2017 case, saying only that Ward was allegedly caught on video entering a different home fully naked.
While he was never arrested in connection with that incident, prosecutors did file charges against him, according to Sayegh.
Ward appared in court in connection with that case one day before his arrest last week, the officer noted.
Investigators believe Ward focused on a dance studio in the Inland Empire where he “became infatuated with several young girls,” police said. The studio is not being named to protect the identities of potential victims.
He also allegedly used social media to prey on the girls, even finding out where they lived through photos posted on the accounts, according to police.
“He was able to just view photographs of the case posted, and was able to narrow down and identify the residence of the victim in this case that we’re talking about,” Sayegh said.
Ward might have followed some of the victims home from the dance studio, though Sayegh cautioned that is still being investigated.
In some instances, the suspect is believed to have entered the rear yards of a victim’s residence. On other occasions, if a door was left unlocked, he would let himself in, police said.
In the Aug. 30 incident, Ward got in through an unlocked sliding door, according to Sayegh.
Police are hoping the release of the suspect’s booking photo as well as the surveillance video could lead to the identification of other potential victims.
“That’s primarily the focus of this, to get that image out there, in the hopes to identify any other victims,” Sayegh said.
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