Nanny cam home invasion video leads to arrest

Authorities have arrested a man wanted in a New Jersey home invasion that left a mother beaten, an attack that was 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. Custis faces charges of attempted murder, robbery, burglary and child endangerment.

The attack last Friday in Millburn was captured on a hidden camera in the woman's home. A man can be seen bursting into the home, punching and kicking the woman and throwing her down stairs while her 3-year-old daughter cowered on a couch. Police withheld the names of the woman and child.

County chief of detectives Anthony Ambrose said Friday that Custis was being transported to an undisclosed location in New Jersey.

Public groups and private individuals offered $20,000 for information leading to the arrest of the man who was seen punching and kicking the Millburn woman last Friday. Essex County Sheriff's Department spokesman Kevin Lynch tells The Star-Ledger of Newark the donors were outraged by the attack.

Portions of the nanny cam footage were aired on television Tuesday as police sought the public's help in identifying the man responsible for the attack, which occurred Friday morning in Millburn, a suburb of about 20,000 residents just west of New York.

Police Capt. Michael Palardy said he was revolted by what he saw the man do to the woman on the video.

"There was no reason for him to touch her at all because she would have willingly gave him what he wanted," Palardy said. "I've probably gone through this video 20 times, and it still sickens me every time I see it. He had no regard for her life. He didn't care if she lived or died."

Police withheld the woman's name to protect her identity and requested the faces of her and her child be blurred when the video was aired.

The woman suffered a concussion, bruises, chipped teeth and cuts around the mouth that required stitches, police said. It's believed she was knocked unconscious when tossed down the stairs, then awoke and called police. She was treated at a hospital and was released.

The nanny cam footage shows the woman sitting next to her child in front of the TV, then getting up to check out a noise out of the frame. It then shows her backing up and being attacked by a man who rushes her.

The burglar made three trips upstairs to rifle through the family's belongings, police said, assaulting the woman on the trips back to the first floor, kicking her, punching her and yanking her by the hair.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.