Nanny Cam Home Invasion Suspect Held in NJ Mom Attack

Authorities have arrested a man wanted in a New Jersey home invasion in which a mother was beaten senselessly as her 3-year-old daughter watched and her home was ransacked, all of it captured on a nanny cam.

The Essex County prosecutor's office said 42-year-old Shawn Custis was arrested Friday in Manhattan by the prosecutor's office and the FBI, according to CBS New York, and the nanny cam home invasion suspect faces charges of attempted murder, robbery, burglary, and child endangerment.

Special: Should Gay Marriage Be Legal? Vote in Urgent Poll.

Custis was apprehended in the lobby of an apartment building on 10th Avenue less than an hour after authorities released his name and issued a warrant for his arrest, according to NJ.com.

Custis was reportedly hiding at his girlfriend’s home in Newark, but she kicked him out after seeing him on the news. He then went to his other girlfriend’s home in Inwood, a neighborhood in New York City, where police tracked his cell phone, according to CBS New York.

His Inwood girlfriend has also been arrested.

Custis reportedly broke into a Millburn home on June 21 in the mid morning. A nanny cam captured the suspect burst into the house, pummel the mother until she was nearly unconscious, run upstairs to ransack their house and steal jewelry and come back downstairs more than once to beat her more, eventually throwing her down the stairs. The woman’s 3-year-old daughter watched the brutal beating, while her 18-month-old child was asleep upstairs throughout the assault. Neither child was harmed.

Police have withheld the names of the victims.

Millburn is a quiet upper middle-class suburban town that has few serious crimes. The violent robbery has shocked residents.

"People come here because it’s a safe town," Capt. Michael Palardy told NJ.com.

Custis has been linked to other robberies in the area and has an extensive criminal history, with several arrests for burglary dating back to 2006, according to the New York Daily News.

Nancy Hernandez, who lives next door to Custis’ girlfriend and her daughters in Inwood, said the alleged attacker walked into her apartment on two occasions, believing no one was home.

“I walked out into my living room, and he was just standing there,” Hernandez told The Daily News. “I was scared. Why would he just walk into my home like that? He gave me the creeps.”
County chief of detectives Anthony Ambrose said Friday that Custis was being transported to an undisclosed location in New Jersey.

CBS New York reports a judge set bail at $750,000.

Editor's Note: Get the Navy SEALs Cap – Celebrate Our Heroes

Related stories:

Student Killed: Home Invasion Break-In Ends in Hofstra Student's Death

Nanny Caught on Camera Abusing Infant, Then Fights With Cops