Cleveland Police Officer Solomon Nhiwatiwa turned himself in on Tuesday to fellow authorities and was arrested after the mother of a 12-year-old girl accused him of exposing his penis and urinating on her daughter while recording the act on his smartphone.
Prosecutors say that the young girl was waiting for the school bus Friday morning when Nhiwatiwa drove up close to the sidewalk and asked if she needed a ride to school. Though the off-duty officer drove off after she repeatedly refused the ride, he quickly returned - phone in hand - and proceeded to urinate on the 12-year-old.
Nhiwatiwa is said to have driven off from the scene after committing the series of crimes, only to return once more. It was then that a neighbor, who had no knowledge of the preceding events, phoned Euclid police and alerted them of a man who was acting “strange” and looking through the windows of various vehicles.
“He will be held accountable,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley said in a Wednesday Facebook post. “It’s my office’s mission to ensure he never wears the badge of a police officer again.”
While the crimes were committed Friday morning, it took Nhiwatiwa until Tuesday to turn himself in to Euclid police.
Nhiwatiwa, a five-year veteran of the police force, is facing a total of eight charges: attempted kidnapping (with sexual motivation specification), pandering obscenity involving a minor, disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, endangering children, criminal child enticement, public indecency, assault and attempted interference with custody.
"This is just an individual who is just a bad man, who just happens to work as a police officer," O’Malley told local news station Fox 8 on Wednesday.
The officer has also been suspended from his position without pay and is scheduled to be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. on Monday in the Cuyahoga County Justice Center.
