South Carolina authorities have arrested and charged a 28-year-old man for allegedly targeting 17 minors online and blackmailing them into sending explicit photos and videos.
Sherman Alexander Turner of Williamston is now facing federal charges related to his crimes and is being held without bond in the Spartanburg County Detention Center, according to the Anderson County Sheriff's Office (ACSO).
"Stranger danger used to be more out in the world, and now, the danger is online," ACSO Detective Adelle Davis said in a video posted to Facebook on Thursday. "These images depicted children under the age of 12, so we're talking pre-pubescent children. This is someone we really needed to hone in on and get off the street as soon as possible."
While authorities were en route to execute a search warrant, they received a phone call identifying a 13-year-old victim of Turner's alleged schemes from Texas.
Davis said she had seen images of the same victim over the course of her investigation into the suspect.
SOUTH CAROLINA MAN ARRESTED FOR TRIPLE HOMICIDE OF FAMILY MEMBERS, INCLUDING COUNCILMEMBER
Turner is accused of contacting a total of 17 victims from Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, California, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, according to ACSO.
The suspect allegedly adopted two different personas in an effort to contact and blackmail the victims, as FOX 8 Greensboro first reported.
"When we started going through the phone, it was thousands upon thousands of images and videos of children," Davis said in the video.
The detective added that she tried to identify as many victims as possible in an effort to stop their images from circulating in the future.
