MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Newly-obtained video shows deputies arresting a man accused of raping an 11-year-old girl at a northwest Miami-Dade park after bystanders chased him down into a nearby neighborhood Tuesday.
Antwan Johnson, 18, is accused of luring the girl into the women’s bathroom at Gwen Cherry Park, located at 7090 NW 22nd Ave. in the unincorporated Gladeview area, under the guise of needing her help getting toilet paper for the men’s room.
Deputies said he dragged the preteen into a stall and raped her despite her pleas for him to stop.
A woman walked in during the attack and Johnson ran away, authorities said, but after the woman yelled that he had just raped the girl, bystanders chased him down onto Northwest 69th Terrace.
“I saw a gentleman on top of a house saying, ‘He’s over there’ and I saw a crowd of people come from one way and cars come from the other way,” neighbor Velda Thompkins said. “I can tell they was beating the young man.”’
“I do not feel bad for this young man,” she concluded.
5 p.m. report:
Medics came to the park to take the girl to the hospital after the violent sexual assault.
People at the park were extremely angry at what happened; they were there for youth football and cheer practice.
A former classmate of Johnson’s said his behavior always seemed off.
“He wasn’t really in the right mindset in the ninth grade and hearing about it, it’s just disgusting,” the former schoolmate, who didn’t want to be identified, said.
Johnson was ordered held without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a charge of sexual battery on a child under 12. He could face the death penalty.
Editor’s note: The original version of this article misstated the incident date as Monday instead of Tuesday. It has since been corrected.
