A male inmate crawled on the floor past a security guard to get to the female side of the room at an intake processing facility in Maricopa County, Arizona, in April.
Law enforcement had placed the 29-year-old inmate, identified as Justin Avery, in custody after he allegedly sexually assaulted several women near Arizona State University’s campus in Tempe, the New York Post reported on Wednesday.
An image shows the suspect on the floor at the Intake Transfer and Processing Facility in Phoenix:
Surveillance video shows the incident, which happened around 4:00 a.m. while he was at the jail facility. Avery decided to move from one side of the room to the other, allegedly to target a female inmate.
Avery got on the floor and crawled from the men’s side to the women’s side while an officer sat at a desk and appeared not to notice his movements.
Several men were sleeping in the chairs on the men’s side of the room as Avery, wearing an orange jumpsuit, scooted close to the desk and then made his way around it:
Court documents recounting the incident said Avery admitted he “snuck over like a spider” because he was drawn to a woman’s “fat a–” as she lay resting on the ground.
“When Avery made it to the women’s side, he crept up behind a sleeping female inmate and lowered his pants — later admitting he planned to ‘rape’ her, according to the court docs,” the Post article said.
However, a woman nearby saw what was happening and reportedly yelled at him to get off of the woman. That was when the officer was alerted to the situation.
More video footage shows Avery walking away from the woman and pulling up his orange pants as the officer approaches him:
Officials later charged Avery with another count of sexual assault. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said, “We acted immediately, adding mirrors for better monitoring in the blind spots that were identified. In addition, a review of our current procedures was completed to ensure best practices are being implemented.”
