Seriously Twisted: Squirt gun suspect charged with eight counts of child abuse

03/08/2014

Updated: 03/07/2014 5:38 PM 

A man accused of squirt gun assaults on Albuquerque kids is in jail Friday night – accused of much more serious crimes than misusing a water pistol.

35-year-old Kevin Jaramillo is charged with kidnapping, aggravated indecent exposure and eight counts of child abuse. Police say he is the man who has been telling kids he was shooting a church video or raising money  to save puppies, asking them to let him squirt them and shoot video of the event.

One of his victims – an 18-year-old girl – said she demanded to know what was in the water in the squirt gun – and he told her it was semen. That happened on Feb. 27 near Eubank and Comanche.

The day before, five kids said Jaramillo sprayed them with fluid from a spray bottle while they were playing in the courtyard of an apartment complex at 6350 Eubank NE. One of the kids – a nine-year-old girl – said Jaramillo took her behind a dumpster, said he was going to “squirt something” – and then exposed himself to her. She ran away screaming to tell her parents.

On Feb. 28, police say Jaramillo shoved a ten-year-old girl to the ground at an apartment complex on Osuna near Eubank, and used his squirt gun to spray her face.

With Jaramillo behind bars, parents can feel a little safer about their kids – a little safer anyway.

“We always thought it was pretty safe here,” said Nancy Hubbard, out walking dogs with her daughter and grand daughter in Academy Hills Park just off Eubank and Spain. “But when something like this happens – I’m just glad they’ve got him caught and taken care of.”

“I can say in front of my child that I’m glad she is not able to know what he was doing,” said Hubbard’s daughter Brenda Kobs. “I know that she knows to stay away from strangers – that’s good.”

“I don’t know,” said  Kim Gordon. “I don’t feel confident letting any kid on their own out and about any more because there are a lot of creeps.”

“Somebody like that does need to be put behind bars,” said Michelle Garza. “Children are innocent. They shouldn’t be exposed to that. It can cause trauma which they’ll carry with them for the rest of their lives.”

Police said all of the victims complained of burning eyes and stomach pain. They said they worried about the squirt gun creep’s increasing level of aggression over just a few days.  All along, for an entire week, they presented the case to the news media as a sort of lightweight mystery. Disturbing? Yes. Dangerous? No, not really. Reporters did not learn of the semen angle – or the forcible squirting – or the indecent exposure – until Friday, when Jaramillo was safely behind bars.

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