JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Police arrested a man who exposed himself to a child last week on the city's Westside, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday night.
Noel Mills, 41, is charged with lewd exhibition on a child.
About 8:30 a.m. May 18, police said, Mills was in his car when he approached an 8-year-old boy walking to school near the intersection of Cedar Hills and Blanding boulevards, asking if his cat had been seen in the area.
As the man showed the child a photo of a cat, he pulled his pants down and fondled himself, according to police.
The next day, police said, the boy saw the same car that the man had been driving and pointed it out to his mother, who took a photo.
The Sheriff's Office released that photo and a sketch of the suspect to the media late Wednesday morning.
Hours later, police said, the suspect's boyfriend saw the sketch and confronted him because the image looked like him. Mills then went to a JSO substation to "clear his name," but after an interview with police -- in which Mills did not ask for a lawyer -- he was arrested, according to JSO.
Officers said the boy was also able to identify the suspect from a photo lineup.
"Oh my goodness. Very disturbing, I'll tell you that. Very scary," said Neecy Hamilton, parent and owner of Franjelle's Blessings Thrift Boutique. "I'm, like, as long as you just say no and run and scream, and do whatever you have to do."
Parents who work near the Westside intersection where the incident was reported told News4Jax that they're worried.
"I try to pay close attention to them because they are my world," said Antonion Hamilton, manager of Franjelle's Blessings Thrift Boutique. "I love my kids and I try to protect them.
News4Jax on Thursday went to Mills' home, where a woman answered the door and said he no longer lives there.
"I have nothing to say for him," the woman said. "He's just a friend. I've known him for 20 years.
Mills was booked into the Duval County Jail, and ordered held on $100,000 bond.
News4Jax also learned his father, Richard Mills, is a registered sexual predator and is in prison for a sex offense against a child.