An 11-year-old girl narrowly escaped being snatched from the street by a suspected kidnapper while walking to school in Arizona, disturbing home surveillance footage showed.
The girl was headed to Sunset Elementary School in Glendale around 8 a.m. on Jan. 26 when the suspect, identified as Joseph Leroy Ruiz, pulled his car to the curb and began his chase, according to Arizona’s family.
The fifth-grader first noticed a “suspicious” man wearing a black jacket with a hood pulled over his head and blue sweatpants lurking at the bottom of the stairs of her apartment building as she left for school, she said. police at a news conference Monday.
She said the man gave her a “strange look” as she walked past him, scaring her enough to run out of her apartment complex.
She began walking toward her school when a silver car pulled up in front of her and she noticed it was the same man she had just run away from, according to police.
The suspect is seen getting out of his car and chasing the girl as she walked to school. YouTube/AZFamily
The observant teenager immediately noticed that Ruiz was trying to grab her and ran away while yelling “help” to the friends she saw walking in front of her.
Police said the alleged kidnapper chased her for a short distance before getting scared and returning to his car to drive away.
Three students then crowded around the girl and walked her to school, neighbors told Arizona’s Family.
Three friends of the 11-year-old girl accompanied her to school after the terrifying kidnapping attempt. YouTube/AZFamily
“As a parent, it’s very scary that on her normal walk to school, she was attacked,” Glendale Police Officer Moroni Mendez told the outlet.
“Someone tried to take her away from her loving family.”
Officers later said they noticed a silver four-door Chevrolet sedan and a man matching the suspect’s description still loitering in the area.
Ruiz, 37, was arrested that same day on charges of attempted kidnapping and interference with custody.
Joseph Leroy Ruiz was charged with attempted kidnapping and custodial interference. YouTube/AZFamily
When interviewed at the station, and informed of the charges, Ruiz did not argue or deny that he had tried to kidnap the girl and only wanted to know how long he would be “locked up,” according to court documents obtained by the outlet.
Police explained that Ruiz lived near the girl’s apartment complex but had no relationship with her.
It was later revealed that Ruiz had a list of previous violent crimes, including attempted first-degree murder and aggravated assault charges from 2013, after stabbing his mother in the neck, police said.
A local resident praised the 11-year-old girl’s ability to realize she was in danger and called the encounter “very creepy.”
Ruiz had a list of previous violent crimes, including attempted first-degree murder and aggravated assault charges from 2013. YouTube/AZFamily
“This morning, I stood on the corner with my granddaughter and my stroller watching the kids, making sure they got to school safely,” the unidentified neighbor told Arizona’s Family.
“I just want the best for these kids. “They are young and should not worry about who will take them.”
The odds of being kidnapped in Arizona are 0.4011 per 1,000 residents during a standard year, according to statistics provided by Crimegrade.org.
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, Arizona has the highest percentage of missing persons, with 14.2 missing persons per 100,000 residents.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn