It appears law enforcement has figured out a way to use social media to capture suspects.
A New York City teenager suspected of several robberies and sexual assaults was caught after police set up a fake Facebook profile of a woman soliciting the young man for sex, the New York Daily News reported Thursday in an exclusive.
A New York Police Department sergeant and officer from an Upper West Side precinct came up with the idea for the Facebook lure. The police created a profile of a 20-year-old woman who sent the suspect, 15-year-old Kalief Jackson, a friend request.
"They have a dialogue, there's a lot of back and forth, and flirting," a police source told the Daily News. "But he's also suspicious and at one point he says, 'If you are the police, you're real good at this.' "
Jackson agreed to meet the mysterious woman in front of Martin Luther King Jr. High School on Jan. 22. But instead of seeing his date, Jackson was met by the cops.
Jackson was arrested and charged with two robberies. Both incidents involve attempted rape and sex abuse, the Daily News reported. The teenager also has several other robbery charges against him that were filed in Family Court.
The police became suspicious of Jackson when they noticed he fit a description matching someone who was robbing and threatening to kill women with a gun.
Jackson allegedly stole a 28-year-old woman's money and cellphone in Morningside Park on Jan. 15.
"If you say anything, I'll shoot you," Jackson allegedly told the woman, the Daily News reported.
Jackson is also suspected of following a woman to her apartment in Harlem one night, forcing her to the ground and trying to rape her, police told the Daily News. The teenager left when the woman began to scream.
Police finally caught on to Jackson on Jan. 20 when a Manhattan woman he was following called the cops because she thought he was acting suspicious. The police found Jackson on the premises, questioned him and let him go.
Police found Jackson again when they set up the Facebook trap.
"The prospect of meeting a good-looking girl was too much for him," a source told the Daily News.