An 11-year-old girl narrowly escaped from being ripped off the street by a suspected kidnapper as she walked to school in Arizona, disturbing home surveillance footage showed.
The girl was making her way to Sunset Elementary School in Glendale around 8 a.m. on Jan. 26 when the suspect, identified as Joseph Leroy Ruiz, pulled his car next to the sidewalk and started his chase, according to Arizona’s Family.
The 5th 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 staircase of her apartment building as she left for school, police said in a press briefing Monday.
She said the man gave her an “odd look” as she passed him, scaring her enough that she rushed out of her apartment complex.
She began walking toward her school when a silver car stopped in front of her, and she noticed it was the same man she had just run away from, according to police.
The observant adolescent noticed immediately that Ruiz was trying to grab her and ran away while screaming “help” to friends she saw walking ahead of her.
Police said the suspected kidnapper chased after her for a short distance before he was scared off and returned to his car to drive away.
Three students then huddled around the girl and escorted her to school, neighbors told Arizona’s Family.
“As a father myself, as a parent, it’s very frightening that on her normal walk to school, she was targeted,” said 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 lingering around the area.
Ruiz, 37, was taken into custody later that day on charges of attempted kidnapping and custodial interference.
Upon interviewing him at the station — and informing him of his charges — Ruiz did not argue or deny that he had tried to kidnap the girl and only wanted to know how long he’d 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 relation to her.
It was then revealed Ruiz had a list of prior violent offenses — including attempted first-degree murder and aggravated assault charges from 2013 after he stabbed his mother in the neck, police said.
One neighbor in the area praised the 11-year-old’s ability to realize she was in danger, calling the encounter “very creepy.”
“This morning, I stood at the corner with my granddaughter and stroller just watching the kids, making sure they get to school safe,” the unidentified neighbor told Arizona’s Family.
“I just want the best for these kids. They are young and shouldn’t have to be worried about who’s going to take them.”
The odds of being kidnapped in Arizona is 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 people, at 14.2 missing persons per 100,000 residents.
