7-Year-Old Flags Down OKC Police Officer To Report Actions Of Sex Offender

Oklahoma City Police said they arrested a sex offender who was making sexually-explicit remarks to children after a 7-year-old boy flagged down an officer to report the crime.

"Around 6 o'clock (Tuesday), police began receiving phone calls regarding a male walking around an apartment complex in northwest Oklahoma City," said Sgt. Dillon Quirk, assistant public information officer with the Oklahoma City Police Department. "Officers learned that the male was walking up to several children in the area, making inappropriate comments, some sexual in nature."

Police said the suspect was later identified as 41-year-old Edward Porter. According to the police incident report, a responding officer was looking for Porter at the apartment complex on North Western Avenue when a 7-year-old boy flagged the officer down. The boy then told the officer that Porter "approached him and started talking about his private parts," the incident report stated. The boy also said that Porter asked him to touch his genitals, the report continued.

The officer talking with the boy then saw the suspect walking through the apartment complex. After the boy confirmed that the man was Porter, the officer took the suspect into custody to gather more information, the incident report said. The officer learned that Porter is a registered sex offender out of Oklahoma County, according to the report.

Officers then spoke with the guardian of the 7-year-old boy. With the help of the guardian, the boy explained that he was playing in an open courtyard at the apartment complex with two older girls when Porter walked up to the boy, the incident report said. Porter then allegedly asked the 7-year-old if he wanted to inappropriately touch the girls, according to the report.

The boy recalled that Porter continued saying other sexually-explicit things, such as, "I know you want to touch me," the police report stated. In addition, the boy said that Porter wanted to inappropriately touch him, prompting him to run away, the report continued.

Officers later found the two girls who were playing with the 7-year-old boy. The girls told investigators that Porter tried to flirt with them before turning his attention to the boy, the incident report said. The girls then ran home and told their father, who called police.

Porter is homeless and is required to check in every seven days because of his sex offender status, the police report said. But his last check-in was on June 13. Porter was previously convicted of failure to register as a sex offender in July 2017, according to court records.

Porter was booked into the Oklahoma County Detention Center on the following charges: lewd or indecent proposals or acts to a child and failure to register as a sex offender. His bond was $82,500. As of Wednesday evening, he remained in jail.