Heroic 9-year-old carries her baby brother to safety after kidnapping, Vegas cops say
.jpg "A 9-year-old girl carried her baby brother to safety after a man stole their mother’s car while they were in the back seat, cops say.")
A brave 9-year-old girl carried her baby brother for miles in the dark and miraculously found her way back to the convenience store where a man had stolen their mother’s car while they were sitting in the backseat, authorities tell local news outlets.
The mother of five told KVVU that she parked her car outside the front door of a 7-Eleven in North Las Vegas and left her two kids in the car with the engine running and doors locked as she used the ATM inside.
She made eye contact with a man, who she described to the outlet as “bad in spirit,” as he sat at a slot machine near the front door. She said he got up and walked to her car and looked inside, so she walked back to the car to confront him.
“He opened the [car] door, and I tried to grab him, and I grabbed his sweater in the door, and he reversed and kind of rolled over the top of my foot,” she told KVVU. “And I was like, ‘Please, my kids are in the car! Please! My kids are in the car!’ He looked back at my daughter. She was like, ‘Mom! Mom!’ And I was like, ‘Please, just let them out; you can have the car. Just let them out, let them out!’”
Police received the report just before 8:30 p.m. that a car had been stolen from a convenience store parking lot in the 4700 block of Cheyenne Avenue near Decatur Boulevard with two young children inside, KLAS reported.
A North Las Vegas traffic officer spotted the car getting onto I-15 from Cheyenne and started pursuing, not knowing whether the kids were still in the car, the station reported.
The accused kidnapper crashed into another car near I-15 and Charleston Boulevard and tried to run away, but officers took him into custody, KSNV reported.
Officers then learned the man had let the kids out of the car on Decatur before the traffic officer caught up to him, KLAS reported.
“My daughter ran five blocks from the store with my 11-month baby, with no shoes on,” the girl’s mother told KVVU.
The accused kidnapper faces a myriad of charges, including: first degree child abuse/neglect, second degree kidnapping, grand larceny of motor vehicle, reckless driving, driver disobeying peace officer/endangering others, duty to stop at scene of accident, drivers license suspended, failure to wear safety belt/shoulder harness.
He was taken to the hospital and then was booked into jail, KSNV reported. The driver in the car he hit had minor injuries.
This story was originally published October 28, 2022 at 2:46 PM with the headline "Heroic 9-year-old carries her baby brother to safety after kidnapping, Vegas cops say."
