An investigation began Tuesday night when emergency dispatchers received a 911 call stating that a man was "in the Bryce Canyon National Park women's facility in the shower stall recording females as they were showering. (Getty Images)
PANGUITCH — A 19-year-old Arizona man has been arrested and accused of trying to record women taking showers at Bryce Canyon National Park.
The investigation began Tuesday night when emergency dispatchers received a 911 call stating that a man was “in the Bryce Canyon National Park women’s facility in the shower stall recording females as they were showering. The female victim stated that she was showering … and that when her time limit was up, the water turned off, and as she was leaning over to dry her hair, she saw an individual holding a cellphone with the camera and lens facing up toward her,” according to a police booking affidavit.
The woman says she screamed, “Are you recording me?” and then heard a male voice, the affidavit states. She says she tried to grab the phone out of the man’s hand. When he pulled away, the woman exited her shower stall and went after the man to prevent him from leaving.
“The victim put (the man) in a hold and was screaming for help. Several female bystanders in the women’s facility ran out to contact law enforcement to get help,” the affidavit states.
The woman attempted to hold onto the man, who struggled with her and broke free and ran out of the shower facility, but he was found and detained by the woman’s boyfriend until Garfield County sheriff’s deputies arrived.
Police say the man claimed he was unable to record the woman in the shower and had already deleted any videos he had taken that night,.
But as a deputy searched his phone, “there were multiple pictures of (him) hiding in female shower facilities, videoing other females as they got into the shower,” the affidavit states.
William Hamilton Watkins VII, of Arizona, was arrested for investigation of voyeurism, assault, tampering with evidence and disorderly conduct.