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 couple in Wisconsin faces arrest for reportedly confining their six children — four of whom were under the age of six — in a storage unit with nothing but a bucket as a makeshift restroom.
Charles A. Dupriest, 33, and Azyia C. Zielinski, 26, were apprehended recently, facing six counts each of child neglect, according to court records accessed by Law&Crime. Additionally, Dupriest has been charged with a single count of possessing a firearm as a felon.
The criminal complaint reveals that Milwaukee Police Department officers responded around 1:33 a.m. on Tuesday to a call concerning a crying child inside a locked storage unit at Storsafe on the 5500 block of North 27th Street. The caller expressed worry for the child’s well-being.
Upon arrival, authorities heard a child’s cries from within storage unit B58, which featured a garage-style door fastened with a padlock. Firefighters had to remove the padlock to enter.
“Inside, they found a bucket filled with urine at the room’s center and six children aged between two months to nine years. Investigators discovered the sole light visible to the children was through a crack in the garage door,” the complaint details. “[A detective] entered the unit and saw the six children asleep. Five-year-old ‘ED’ informed [the detective], ‘We’re not supposed to be loud.’ Not long after, ED urinated in the orange bucket located 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.
