DETROIT – A 37-year-old Detroit man is in jail after being arrested and charged in connection with the kidnapping and sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl earlier this month, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
Ronnell Agee is accused of assaulting the teenager where he lived on Lindsay Street between March 3 and March 10. The girl had been reported missing earlier in the month, according to Detroit police.
Neighbors say Agee lived in a partially boarded-up home on the block, where trash and debris are scattered across the yard. One man who lives on the same street and asked not to be identified said he was stunned to learn of the allegations.
“My heart just fell through the floor,” the man said.
He told Local 4 he has interacted with Agee for more than a year, often lending him lawn equipment and trying to help him out.
“I helped him a little, because he needed my weed whacker to do a job. He’ll ask me to use my lawn mower to cut grass,” the neighbor said.
The man said he saw police searching the home about a week ago and only later learned why officers were there.
He also said this situation is frustrating because Agee was in close proximity to other young children who lived on the street, like his children.
“You had the potential to take advantage of my young daughter,” he said. “If you could do that to someone else’s daughter, you could do that to anybody’s daughter.”
Agee faces 11 charges related to the case. A court hearing is scheduled for Thursday, with another hearing set for early April.
Local 4 reached out to relatives of Agee, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment.