Birmingham firefighter accused in 2nd city of showing genitals photo to young girl
Birmingham AL Dec 11 2017 A Birmingham firefighter arrested in Hoover Wednesday after police say he showed obscene photos to four different females, two of them under the age of 10, is now charged with another crime in Midfield.
Kevin Dewayne Turpin, 41, was released from the Hoover City Jail Wednesday night and was taken into custody by Midfield police. The firefighter, who served Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service for several years at Station 3, has now left his job.
In Midfield, Turpin is charged with indecent exposure. The incident happened in 2014 at a Midfield doughnut shop where a 10-year-old girl was visiting with her grandmother while her mother was at work. According to the girl’s mother, the suspect – now identified as Turpin – walked in and out of the shop’s bathroom multiple times before showing the girl a picture of his penis on his cell phone and asked her, “Do you like what you see?”
“It was a terrifying thing for her to experience,” the mother told AL.com Thursday. “She was reliving it all last night.”
The mother said she immediately notified police three years ago, filed a report and signed the misdemeanor warrant against him. She said she doesn’t know why it took three years to arrest him. “This all could have been avoided,” she said of the more recent Hoover incidents.
In Hoover, authorities said they were notified of the incident on Nov. 14. The allegations, said Lt. Keith Czeskleba, are that Turpin approached the two young girls in the parking lot of Dollar General on Tyler Road. They were sitting in a vehicle when the suspect approached the window with his cell phone in his hand.
The girls told police the man showed them an obscene photograph and then left the area. Hoover police did not elaborate on the photo’s content.
Hoover’s Special Victims Unit began an investigation and learned that two adult females had also been approached by the man – later identified as Turpin – while they were inside Dollar Store. In those cases, Czeskleba said, the approached the victims and showed them an obscene picture on his phone.
Investigators were able to identify Turpin as the suspect. On Wednesday, they obtained four warrants charging him with four counts of disseminating obscene material – all misdemeanors.
Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service Chief Charles Gordon confirmed that Turpin resigned from the department Thursday morning.
AL.com
