Suspected members of the Erie Predator Catchers charged with robbery in May

Five are accused of confronting a man who thought he was police and took his gun after luring him to Frontier Park

In Warren County, a local vigilante-style group that works to expose suspected child predators through online stings was credited with leading police to a New York man accused of traveling to Warren in September to Having sex with someone he thought was 14 years old. old girl.

But closer to home, Erie police accuse suspected members of a group called the Erie Predator Catchers of confronting a man in a city park in late May, ordering him out of his car and stealing his gun.

Those members are now facing criminal charges for the incident in Erie, while the case against the alleged predator is going to trial in Warren.

What happened in Erie?

Erie police filed charges Sept. 27 against five people believed to be connected to Erie Predator Catchers. They were charged over an incident that police reported late in the evening of May 27th.

Police said a person called 911 and reported that people had surrounded a car in the parking lot of the Lake Erie Arboretum on West Sixth Street in Frontier Park, according to criminal complaints.

A man told officers at the scene that his gun was stolen by people who told him they were the Erie Predator Catchers.

According to the complaints, officers identified the five people charged in the investigation and a 16-year-old girl.

In affidavits accompanying the complaints, officers said they learned that members of the Erie Predator Catchers had lured a man to Frontier Park on the evening of May 27, and after the man arrived, they had his Surrounded the vehicle and asked him to get out.

The man believed the people were police officers and told the others that he had a gun on him, according to the affidavit.

According to the affidavits, the man said he complied with the people’s orders, which included being asked to stand outside his car and keep his hands on the vehicle.

One of the defendants asked another suspect to “shake” him, and the suspect pulled a gun from the front of the man’s pants while his hands were on the vehicle, according to the affidavits.

The encounter was livestreamed on the Facebook account of one of the defendants, and four of the defendants can be seen in the video, according to the affidavit. According to the affidavits, police obtained another video of the incident that showed the fifth suspect.

Investigators assume that the 16-year-old girl present was used as a decoy to lure the man into the park.

Erie police charged each of the five suspects with larceny, robbery, conspiracy to commit larceny and conspiracy to commit robbery. They are also charged with corruption of minors and reckless endangerment, along with a summary charge of disorderly conduct.

Four of the defendants, Jaiden M. Farris, 21, Darryn A. Kalicky, 21, Joshua D. Myers, 20, and Ryan J. Munsch, 20, were arraigned and held on $5,000 unsecured bail released. The other defendant, 30-year-old Efrain E. Perez, who previously told the Times-News that he uses the first name Ethan, had not yet been charged as of Thursday morning.

Police identified Perez in the criminal complaints as the leader and founder of Erie Predator Catchers.

Perez could not be reached for comment for this story.

Who are the Erie Predator Hunters?

Erie Predator Catchers is believed to have started in March 2022, when one of its co-founders, Nate Burgos, told the Erie Times-News that he and his half-brother Perez had started a Facebook page after seeing others on YouTube Videos of “predators” being caught were posted.

A number of other vigilante groups have emerged across the country, with actions reminiscent of the earlier Dateline NBC series “To Catch a Predator.”

Burgos told the Times-News in 2022 that the group provides a public service to the community by exposing predators and protecting youth from such people. Their videos attracted thousands of views and likes within months of the group going live.

Burgos and Perez told the Times-News that they used dating apps and similar methods to lure women over 18 into posing as minors online. The decoys don’t initiate conversations, but the person who approaches the decoys begins the engagement, they said. Most of the time, the conversations become sexual, Burgos told the Times-News.

The group is trying to arrange a meeting, Burgos said. He said the group wanted to have a conversation with the person during these meetings with the aim of exposing that person.

The group’s work recently led to an arrest.

Assisting in arrest in Warren

The Warren Police Department charged a 31-year-old man from Otego, New York, on Sept. 14 with traveling to Warren with the intent to have sex with a 14-year-old girl. The charges include criminal attempt to unlawfully contact a minor, criminal use of a communications facility and dissemination of explicit sexual material to a minor.

According to information contained in the affidavit filed with the criminal complaint against defendant Joshua A. Nowalk, Erie Predator Catchers contacted Warren police on September 14 and reported that Nowalk had been in contact with a woman he believed to be that she was 14 years old and that he traveled to Warren with the intention of having sex with her.

Warren police and Warren County detectives met with Erie Predator Catchers to get more information, and police gathered more details about Nowalk’s arrival before arresting him in Warren, according to the affidavit.

Nowalk admitted during an interview with police that he had developed a bond with the girl and sent her nude photos. He also said he and the woman agreed to meet in person, that he reserved a hotel room and brought Viagara pills, investigators wrote in the affidavit.

Warren Police Chief Joseph Spoveri said Erie Predator Catchers contacted his department and told them that a man they had been in contact with was planning to come to Warren to meet an underage female. He said his officers intervened in the investigation and verified the information, advanced the investigation and set up a detachment where Nowalk was observed arriving on the scene as he said he would. Officers took action that resulted in an arrest and the service of a search warrant. Sproveri said.

He said Warren police relied on the Warren County District Attorney’s Office for all legal guidance regarding the actions taken in the Erie Predator Catchers case.

According to court records, Nowalk was arraigned on all charges following his preliminary hearing Sept. 24 in Warren. Perez was among those who testified at Nowalk’s hearing, according to a Sept. 25 online article in the Warren Times Observer.

According to the article, Perez said he created a “decoy account” on Facebook and posed as a 14-year-old girl from Corry. According to the article, Perez confirmed during cross-examination at the hearing that at no time was there a minor on the other end of the conversation.

What do local law enforcement think about the group?

In June 2022, after one of the Erie Predator Catchers stings involving a former Erie High School teacher made headlines, Erie police and the Erie County District Attorney’s Office said they would not condone the group’s actions, and instead asked them to share any information they notified law enforcement about suspected predators. They said such groups put themselves at risk and undermine law enforcement investigations.

Erie Police Chief Dan Spizarny said after Perez and the others were charged Sept. 27 that his department has had conversations with Erie Predator Catchers in the past and told them that their encounters with suspected predators were inappropriate and that the Violence escalates. They were told that if they had information they should provide it to the police and not try to make their own “catch.”

“Despite this, such incidents continue to occur and we are seeing more and more violence by members of Predator Catchers,” Spizarny said Monday. “We have further investigations underway into the incidents in which they were involved.”

He said members of the Erie Predator Catchers were told to provide police with any necessary information, but they did not comply with those requests.

“There are state and federal forces, as well as an Erie police officer on a federal task force whose job it is to handle cases like this,” Spizarny said. “Erie Predator Catchers is interfering in this investigation. They are not law enforcement, they have no authority or power and they are distorting the ongoing investigation by continuing on this course.”

“The Erie Police Department cannot tolerate vigilantism, and we alert them that any further attempts to conduct their activities in the city could result in additional criminal charges,” Spizarny said. “It’s dangerous for them and the citizens around them.”

Contact Tim Hahn at [email protected]. Follow him on X @ETNhahn.

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Suspected members of the Erie Predator Catchers charged with robbery in May

Five are accused of confronting a man who thought he was police and took his gun after luring him to Frontier Park

What happened in Erie?

Who are the Erie Predator Hunters?

Assisting in arrest in Warren

What do local law enforcement think about the group?

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Suspected members of the Erie Predator Catchers charged with robbery in May

Five are accused of confronting a man who thought he was police and took his gun after luring him to Frontier Park

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Who are the Erie Predator Hunters?

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