Main, left to right: Azyia Zielinski and Charles Dupriest (Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office). Inset: The inside of the storage unit where the couple allegedly locked their six kids (MCSO).
A husband and wife in Wisconsin have been arrested after they allegedly left their six children — four of whom were under the age of 6 — locked inside a storage unit with only a bucket to use as a restroom.
Charles A. Dupriest, 33, and Azyia C. Zielinski, 26, were taken into custody earlier this week and charged with six counts each of child neglect, court records obtained by Law&Crime show. Dupriest was also charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
According to the criminal complaint, officers with the Milwaukee Police Department at about 1:33 a.m. on Tuesday responded to a report of a crying child inside a locked storage unit at the Storsafe in the 5500 block of North 27th Street. The caller told the dispatcher they were concerned for the welfare of the baby.
Upon arriving at the facility, first responders said they could hear a child still crying inside storage unit B58, which had a garage-style door secured with a padlock. Fire department personnel cut the padlock to gain entry.
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“Inside, they observed a bucket containing urine in the middle of the room and six children ranging in age from two months to nine years. Detectives later learned that the only light visible to the children came through the crack of the garage door,” the complaint says. “[A detective] entered the unit and observed the six children sleeping. Five-year-old ‘ED’ told [the detective], ‘We’re not supposed to be loud.’ Shortly afterward, ED urinated in an orange bucket in the center of the unit.”
The children’s ages were 9, 7, 5, 3, 2, and 2 months.
Police said they woke up the 9-year-old, who was able to provide the names of his parents, telling the detective that “he was responsible for caring for his five younger siblings” when the adults were away.
“[The 9-year-old] reported that he stays at the storage unit about 50% of the time and that they use a bucket to urinate and defecate,” the affidavit says. “[The 9-year-old] stated he is supposed to give the 2-month-old a bottle or pacifier and pick her up when she cries. [The 9-year-old] told [the detective] he was hungry and had no device to contact his parents or anyone else in an emergency.”
Police said the stench from inside was “so putrid they could not remain inside even with the garage door open.”
An employee at the facility allegedly told investigators that he remembered in May hearing a male voice inside the unit saying “Sit down and be quiet,” and saw surveillance footage of the children being dropped off at the unit by their parents, which he reported to management.
Authorities at 2:11 a.m. located Dupriest and Zielinski sleeping in a Ford Expedition parked in the lot along with their dog. Officers noted that the middle row of the vehicle was completely unoccupied while all of the children, including their infant, were in the storage unit.
Dupriest and Zielinski said the family was “homeless,” but admitted the children could have been staying with other family members.
In a forensic interview, the 5-year-old girl victim said she “felt ‘sad’ when locked in the storage unit and ‘mad’ so she made the unit dirty.”
“She said she tried to open the door but could not,” the affidavit said. “She reported using a bucket to urinate and defecate, sometimes with a bag placed inside. She said she was upset the dog got to sleep in the car while she and her siblings slept in the unit. LD stated her parents went to bed while the children were still awake. She said her father carried a firearm, pointing to her hip.”
The 9-year-old said his father disciplines him with “whoopings,” and that after one such whooping, he thought he should go to the hospital.
Zielinski and Dupriest are currently being held in the Milwaukee County Jail. Their bonds are $10,500 and $10,000 respectively. It was not immediately clear when they were scheduled to appear in court.
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