Charles Dupriest and Azyia Zielinski arrested after their 6 young kids found living at StorSafe storage unit after saying they were kicked out of shelter after mother gave recent birth to newborn. Parents were found living in car in parking lot with their dog.
A Milwaukee couple have been arrested after their six young children, ranging in age from 2 months to 9 years old, were found locked in a storage unit without power or water earlier this week.
Charles Albert Dupriest, 33, and Azyia C. Zielinski, 26, following their arrest appeared in court on Friday where they faced six counts of child neglect charges. Dupriest was also charged with possession of a firearm as a felon.
How were couple able to move their 6 young kids at StorSafe Storage Units in Milwaukee?
Notice of the calamity came after cops received a call Tuesday morning, circa 1.30 a.m of a child crying inside a locked unit at StorSafe, 5555 N. 27th St.
Upon arriving, officers said they heard crying and coughing from within one of the units.
Milwaukee firefighters cut a padlock to gain entry and found six children aged 9, 7, 5, 3, 2, and a two-month-old, WISN reported.
Told one user of StorSafe, ‘To me it sounds like a cry for help maybe, or maybe they just needed help and didn’t know how to get it.’
Not immediately clear is how the parents were able to keep the children at the storage facility without the knowledge of StorSafe officials or presumably the presence of surveillance cameras.
According to the criminal complaint, investigators found a bucket ‘containing urine’ that had been placed in the center of the storage unit. Detectives noted there was no electricity or running water and ‘the only light visible to the children came through the crack of the garage door.’
Children were left to go hungry and light only came through crack at bottom of unit
Detectives described the odor as ‘putrid,’ stated the complaint.
‘The only light these poor children had to have was the crack of light that came to the bottom of the garage. We have your children stating that they had no food, that the only food they found was from the garbage,’ Milwaukee County Court Commissioner Andrea Bolender said during Zielinski’s court appearance.
Inside the unit, which was discovered in disarray, a detective observed a sectional couch and a twin mattress without sheets. The 5-year-old told a detective, ‘We’re not supposed to be loud,’ before urinating in the orange bucket, the filing says.
According to the complaint, the 9-year-old told police he was responsible for caring for the children and said they used the bucket ‘to urinate and defecate.’ He told investigators he was hungry and had no way to contact anyone in an emergency.
Officers later found Dupriest and Zielinski sleeping in a Ford Expedition in the parking lot. Both admitted they slept in the SUV with their dog while the children slept in the storage unit, court documents say.
Family claims they had been living at StorSafe storage unit for six weeks
One of the children told police ‘she was upset the dog got to sleep in the car while she and her siblings slept in the unit.’
‘The middle row was completely empty and the dog had the back row all to himself. As these children slept in a locked storage container with one twin mattress on the floor,’ Bolender said.
During police questioning, Zielinski said the family had been sleeping in the storage unit for about six weeks after leaving a shelter and acknowledged placing a bucket in the unit for the children to use.
Dupriest said the children slept in the unit about three times per week and acknowledged that family or friends could have housed the children.
One child said she felt ‘sad’ when locked in the unit and ‘mad,’ so she made it dirty. Another said there were ‘no lights, only cracks through which light entered” and that he “would not know how to get out in an emergency.’
9 year old would be placed in charge if parents got ‘too drunk’
The 9-year-old said parents sometimes drank alcohol and become ‘become drunk and slump over,’ at which point the 9-year-old was instructed to take care of the siblings.
The 9-year-old also told officers Dupriest would often discipline them with whoopings including one with ‘such force that his lips began to bleed.’ The 9-year-old also said a parent had ‘a bunch of guns.’
Authorities interviewed an employee of the storage unit, who stated in May of 2025 while cleaning, he overheard an adult male inside the storage unit say, ‘Sit down and be quiet.’
The employee was able to provide surveillance video showing Dupriest and Zielinski dropping their children off at the storage unit.
The complaint says the employee reported the issue to management, who issued an eviction notice for the unit. It remained unclear why authorities were not called to the site and how management came to see the living arrangement as ‘manageable’.
How did Milwaukee family end up living in storage unit?
Investigators said Zielinski and Dupriest were receiving food stamps and $2,000 a month in social security benefits. They said they were ‘kicked out’ of Joy House, a Milwaukee Rescue Mission shelter for women and children in July.
Zielinski according to the complaint told investigators she struggled to secure housing for seven years and said the family had been sleeping in the storage unit for about a month-and-a-half.
Zielinski told officers the family was living at Joy House, a shelter in Milwaukee, before they were ‘kicked out after she gave birth,’ but they did have family members they could have stayed with.
In a statement to WISN, Patrick Vanderburgh, President and CEO of the Milwaukee Rescue Mission, said, ‘We were heartbroken to learn of the recent news involving children found sheltering in a storage locker. We want to confirm that the Milwaukee Rescue Mission and Joy House — our family shelter — have provided assistance to this family in the past.’
Adding, ‘The family stayed with us for two months in 2023, and again for more than a month during June and July of 2025. While we must respect and maintain the confidentiality of our guests and their families, we can share that during their most recent stay, we were able to verify that the family had secured permanent housing before leaving Joy House. We remain committed to supporting families in crisis and providing the resources they need to move toward stability and hope.’
Not immediately clear is how the family ended up in the storage unit after allegedly being told they had to move out from the shelter.
Of note, the complaint notes Dupriest’s prior felony conviction for third-degree sexual assault in Ozaukee County.
