SUNNY ISLES BEACH, Fla. – A mother said Fariz Feyzullayev, 43, of Brooklyn, New York, was sneaky and acted swiftly while at the checkout line of a busy Publix Supermarket in Sunny Isles Beach.
Surveillance video shows he used a bag of M&M candy to lure her 5-year-old daughter to walk a few steps away from her. When she was close enough, he bent down and kissed the little girl in the mouth.
The girl’s mother, who does not want to be identified, said she saw Feyzullayev kiss her daughter and yelled, as he grabbed his bags and ran out to Collins Avenue.
“Look, it happened so quickly and I was in shock,” the distraught mother said on Wednesday. “It was a brazen attack right in front of a mother.”
Capt. Eddie Santiago, a spokesman for the Sunny Isles Police Department, said officers stopped Feyzullayev on Friday as he walked on Collins Avenue and arrested him on Friday. He is facing a charge of child abuse without great bodily harm.
The girl’s mother has a message for Feyzullayev: “I hope you don’t get away with it. I hope you haven’t done it to other people and if you are sick, get help!”
Feyzullayev’s social media profile picture has hearts, “love” and a message: “Dad wishes happy birthday to his beloved daughter.”
A Facebook user with his identity had associations with Azerbaijan, a country south of Russia and north of Iran. Some remote areas of Azerbaijan have a patriarchal culture that has been to blame for reports such as a transwoman burned alive and a pregnant girl who had to get engaged to her rapist.
Santiago is asking anyone who may know if Feyzullayev has victimized other children to call the Sunny Isles Beach Police Department at 305-947-4440. To report child abuse to the Florida Department of Children and Families call 1-800-962-2873 or call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.