Authorities are investigating the possible sexual assault last week of a three-year-old boy by an older child inside a child-care facility at Grand Casino Mille Lacs.
The victim's parent was paged after a worker at the facility saw the toddler was physically assaulted the evening of Jan. 23, said the band's solicitor general, Rjay Brunkow. The next day, the boy's parent noticed more bruising and the parent took the child to a doctor, who "concluded a sexual assault may have happened," Brunkow said.
Mille Lacs Band tribal police are in the early stages of the investigation, Brunkow said, but have identified a "suspect or person of interest" -- a boy between 8 and 10 years old.
The child care facility, called Kids Quest, is run by a private contractor that leases space at the casino and is not owned by the band, Brunkow said.
According to the casino website, Kids Quest hosts children ages six weeks to 12 years while their parents are at the casino.
Brunkow said the incident may have happened inside a crawling tube that is part of the playground equipment in the facility, which would have concealed it from workers.
Authorities hope to have a report with more answers by Friday.
"We're going to continue to investigate very aggressively. I've instructed our police chief that this is top priority," Brunkow said. "We need a quick resolution of this case and an accurate resolution."
