A 19-year-old Milwaukee man who was shot by a police during his arrest Monday has been charged with child sex crimes.
Emilio A. Arner-Ortiz was charged Friday by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office with using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, abduction of a child, child enticement, second-degree sexual assault of a child under 16, and intentionally pointing a firearm at law enforcement.
According to prosecutors, Arner-Ortiz had been chatting online with a 13-year-old Illinois boy for three years and recently Arner-Ortiz drove to Illinois to pick up the boy in the middle of the night and returned to Milwaukee to have sex with him.
According to a criminal complaint:
The boy’s father woke up at his residence in Alsip, Illinois, on Nov. 7 and discovered that the boy was not home. In an effort to locate him, the father examined the boy’s laptop and discovered chats in the Discord app between the boy and someone named “Tres” arranging for him to be picked up shortly after 3 a.m.
The father was able to contact his son through Discord and then call him. The boy said he was with a friend who took him to a party in the West Dundee area. The boy didn’t share his exact location and told his father he would be home by 3 p.m. But the father called the number back and an adult male answered so he went to the Alsip Police Department to report his son missing.
While filing a missing person report, the boy’s mother made contact with her son. The boy said he with a 16-year-old friend in the Oak Lawn area. The mom said she would come pick him up, but the boy called back saying he was actually in Milwaukee and that his friend ran out of gas at the intersection of South Sixth Street and West Oklahoma Avenue.
Milwaukee Police Department officers discovered the boy inside a McDonald’s on Oklahoma Avenue, where the boy declined to talk to police about his relationship with “Tres.” The mother then drove to Milwaukee to pick up the boy.
Originally the boy’s parents declined to give authorities consent to search the Discord app, but the boy’s mother and the boy returned to police on Dec. 1 to file a report about her son and an adult male communicating online and having sex in the adult’s residence, prosecutors said.
The boy’s family discovered photos on the boy’s laptop on Thanksgiving, including one of Arner-Ortiz and the boy cuddling, the complaint says. The boy said that was his boyfriend “Tres” and he was 16 years old.
Upon examining the Discord chats and talking to her son, the mother learned that “Tres” was actually “Emilio Arner,” he is 19 years old, and had been chatting almost entirely in a sexual nature with her son, according to the complaint.
Arner-Ortiz had been teaching the boy about pederasty, the Ancient Greek practice of a man having sex with young boys and that “Tres” felt love for the boy in a way that a father loves a son, the complaint states.
The mother eventually began chatting with Arner-Ortiz, pretending to be the boy.
According to the complaint, the mother said the boy’s parents were understanding of the relationship and wanted to meet him. Arner-Ortiz responded, “she will not like that I am 19.”
The complaint says the mother continued to press to have “Tres” meet the parents and Arner-Ortiz began responding with threats: “If you sabotage me, I’ll be forced to sabotage you” and “by revealing this (the relationship) to her they will go through your messages and electronics and find everything you’ve done and it will ruin both of our lives.”
When the subject of pederasty was brought up, the mother decided to call “Tres” and reveal she was actually chatting with him the whole time, the complaint says. She told Arner-Ortiz that what he was doing was disgusting, while Arner-Ortiz denied having sex with the boy, prosecutors said.
The mother then turned over the boy’s cellphone and laptop to police and consented to searches. Police traced the boy’s route while with Arner-Ortiz and pinpointed a residence in the 2500 block of South Seventh Street, which is tied through records to Arner-Ortiz.
Police conducted an interview with the boy, where he disclosed that he only met “Tres” once, that he snuck out of his home at about 3 a.m. to meet up with “Tres” and the two went to a church parking lot and played tag and drank alcohol, according to the complaint.
Prosecutors said it was clear that the boy was attempting to protect “Tres.” One of the main reasons an adult engaging in sexual activity with a minor is considered abusive is because of psychological and physical harm the youth can endure.
Within the chats are messages from the boy to Arner-Ortiz that state, “you’re free because I lied for you,” the complaint says. The two discussed committing suicide together and at one point the boy pulled the trigger of an unloaded gun while pointed at his head, according to the complaint.
Arner-Ortiz told the boy that the age difference between the two is “only marginally wrong” and the two discuss being in love.
On Jan. 6, two Milwaukee police officers responded to Arner-Ortiz’s residence.
Arner-Ortiz’s mother answered the rear door and confirmed her son was inside the residence sleeping, police said. The officer asked the mother to get him.
Moments later, the mother returned to the back door and Arner-Ortiz can be heard saying, “They cannot enter without a warrant.” An officer responded, “I have a warrant for him.”
According to the complaint, at this moment, Arner-Ortiz pulled a gun from his waistband and raised it at the officers. One officer swiped Arner-Ortiz’s arm to the side and a struggle ensued. During the encounter, an officer yelled commands before firing a shot into Arner-Ortiz’s abdomen, the complaint says.
After being shot, Arner-Ortiz yelled, “It’s unloaded” and “Suicide by cop,” according to the complaint. He was transported to a hospital.
If convicted on all charges, Arner-Ortiz could be sentenced to 126 years in prison.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 19-year-old Milwaukee man charged with child sex crimes