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School system claims they did not know about alleged assaults at bus stop

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BATON ROUGE- At the bus stop across from Claiborne Elementary School on Denham Street, police say 26-year-old Hunter Talley drove up in a gray Toyota on Thursday, showed a gun to a 13-year-old girl and then groped her.

People in the neighborhood who witnessed it say they called out to the girl, asking who she was talking to. Talley then drove away.

Friday, Talley was seen againthis time by a 12-year-old girl near the Mohican and Prescott crossover.

According to police, Talley showed the girl a gun and she ran to a nearby home for help.

The question nearly a week later: why did it take so long for the public to learn about this?

"When that all happened last week, we started our investigation to find out if it is happening, and if it was, we needed go catch this suspect," L'Jean McKneely said.

Following the first assault, police arrested one suspect Thursday, but realized it was not who they were after.

"Officers were out there patrolling the area in an attempt to catch him. If we had put a lot of that information out on Friday, there was a chance we wouldn't catch him," McKneely said

Tuesday morning, after the holiday, a team of police waited at bus stops. Arrest records say they found Talley's vehicle with guns in the front seat and he was soon arrested. Officers said Talley admitted to driving up to the two teenage girls.

Police tell WBRZ they did not announce the two assaults in hopes of catching Talley without tipping him off.

"We felt that we put it all out, first we wanted to be sure it was happening. If we put that information in an un-timely manner, it could have been detrimental to our investigation. He might've went underground. We got him. We got him off of the streets," McKneely said.

The East Baton Rouge School System issued a statement Wednesday afternoon saying they did not know about these incidents:

The EBRPSS was not informed of this matter by law enforcement, as it allegedly occurred on a public street, and the victim reported it directly to the police department. We have since been made aware that an arrest has been made, and the investigation is ongoing. Those involved were not under the supervision of EBRPSS or its transportation workers at the time of the incident, and therefore, this is a police matter.”

Talley's bond is set at $60,000.

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