Samuel Omitiran Arrested After Garden State Plaza Mall Incident

Samuel Omitiran, 22, was arrested Friday after police said he masturbated and exposed himself to shoppers, including children, at the garden state plaza mall in Paramus. Security officers alerted police at about 1:40 p.m. to an incident in progress inside the Old Navy store.

Paramus Police Chief Robert Guidetti said Omitiran was charged with sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, lewdness and criminal sexual contact. He was taken to the Bergen County Jail to await his first court appearance.

Old Navy at Garden State Plaza

Guidetti said security officers reported multiple complaints that a man was exposing himself to shoppers. He said the man “masturbated to ejaculation while standing on line, before fleeing the store.”

The account from mall security put police in motion inside one of the mall’s stores rather than at an exterior entrance or parking area. That is why the response moved quickly from a store report to a search through the shopping center.

McGuire and Liu in Paramus

Police Sgt. Matt McGuire tracked the suspect through the mall and into a parking lot. Officer Don Liu then saw the suspect get into a car and stopped the vehicle.

Liu arrested Omitiran without incident after the stop. The case now moves to his first court appearance, with the charges already set out by Paramus police.

Bergen County Jail custody

Omitiran is from Monroe, New York. The arrest closes the immediate police search, but the charge list leaves the case in the hands of the court as it begins in Bergen County.