KIRKWOOD • A Kirkwood man was arrested Wednesday on charges he secretly shot cellphone video of women under their skirts at a Target store here.

Giovanni Russo, 29, of the 400 block of West Madison Avenue, is charged with invasion of privacy of multiple individuals, a felony.

Kirkwood police say that on June 12, Russo approached two women, 39 and 23, separately, in the Target store at 1042 South Kirkwood Road. Police said the older woman alerted authorities after he kneeled down next to her. She reported to police what happened and that she saw him leaving the store. At that point, the other woman approached police at the store to report that Russo had done the same thing to her a little earlier.

Kirkwood Detective David Smith said officers reviewed Target's surveilllance video of Russo following and approaching one of the women in the store. Police arrested Russo the next day and said he had a slide-out phone like the one the women described but found no footage on his phone.

It wasn't immediately clear how they identified him as a suspect. Russo later admitted taking video of the women.

Russo was being held in lieu of a $5,000 bail.

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