A Texas man was arrested after he allegedly took pictures of women underneath a stall in a mall bathroom while reportedly dressed as a woman and brandished a pepper ball gun when confronted.
Douglas Egan, 45, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and improper photography.
On Christmas Eve around 4:30 p.m., a woman said she noticed a cellphone underneath the stall in the bathroom at Hulen Mall in Fort Worth, according to police.
The woman exited the stall and confronted the suspect, “a male that was dressed to look like a female,” who attempted to flee, police said.
A male attempted to intervene and stop the suspect from leaving the premises. The suspect allegedly reached into his backpack and pulled out what looked like a handgun and pointed it at the male. Police later ascertained that the weapon was a pepper ball gun.
Some witnesses said they saw the suspect change out of the women’s clothes he was wearing and into men’s clothes after he left the mall.
“The suspect then left the mall, but was being observed by several witnesses,” officers said. “These witnesses saw the suspect changing his clothes and also observed what appeared to be a handgun in the back waistband of the suspect’s pants.”
Police were called and arrested Egan at a nearby apartment complex.
He is currently being held on a combined $30,000 bond at the Lon Evans Corrections Center. He is scheduled to appear in court on January 3.
Egan is a previously convicted sex offender classified as “high risk”in the Texas Department of Public Safety, which means he is considered a danger to the community and expected to reoffend and commit more sex crimes in the future.
He is registered for life as a sex offender for multiple incidents, including indecent exposure to a 16-year-old girl in 2015 and two other indecent exposure incidents to female victims in 2010 and 2011. He was incarcerated for seven years for his offense involving the teen girl, and 60 days and 120 days for the two other offenses.
In recent years, controversy has erupted over the issue of biological men who identify as transgender using women’s bathrooms. Critics have expressed concerns about men taking advantage of access to women’s restrooms in order to victimize women sexually, physically, or both.
In October, a transgender high school student allegedly assaulted two female students in the girls bathroom at an Oklahoma high school, leaving them with injuries. The transgender student has been charged.
Earlier this month, a transgender man, 52, was arrested after 15 months on the run for allegedly exposing his penis to a locker room full of women at Wii Spa in Los Angeles. He has been charged with five felony counts of indecent exposure and sits in a male inmate jail on $350,000 bail.