An 8-year-old California boy was nearly kidnapped in front of his parents on the day the family was celebrating opening their new business, frightening video showed.
Christopher Aaron Higginbotham, 38, pleaded not guilty to attempted kidnapping and false imprisonment charges on Friday after a security camera showed him allegedly grab Adrian Villanueva’s son and try to run off with him, according to NBC San Diego.
Villanueva was watching his son play outside his new deli in Ocean Beach on March 22 when he noticed Higginbotham acting bizarrely, pacing back and forth outside his store.
Villanueva was keeping a close eye on his son and Higginbotham when things quickly took a turn for the worse.
In the blink of an eye, Higginbotham allegedly grabbed Villanueva’s son right in front of him and fled with the boy toward the street.
“I don’t care if he has weapons or he has any of that. I don’t care about that. I was just trying to rescue my son,” Villanueva told the outlet.
Fortunately, good Samaritans nearby helped the father and pounced on the man, subduing Higginbotham until police arrived to take him into custody.
“The fact that I saw the eyes of my kid, you know, when I saw him with the watery eyes, trying to run away from this guy, and then when he sees his mom and starts crying, so it’s terrible,” Villanueva explained.
Following Higginbotham’s arrest, prosecutors told the outlet that creep had a lengthy history of committing violent crimes.
In 2016, he was charged with felony assault for punching someone in the face and then pulling out a fencing sword in Imperial Beach.
In August, he allegedly whacked someone in the jaw with a metal pole, according to the outlet.
Higginbotham was also charged with assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly attacked two people in Ocean Beach during a separate incident at an undisclosed time, prosecutors told the outlet.
At his hearing on Friday, He was denied bail after the court ruled he was a threat to society, according to the outlet.
The court also granted a protective order to Villanueva’s son against Higginbotham.
He faces up to four years in prison if found guilty of attempted kidnapping and false imprisonment.
Higginbotham’s next court appearance is scheduled for April 9.
San Diego County ranks in the 30th percentile for overall safety for counties across the nation, according to Crime Grade.
The chances of being kidnapped in San Diego County is 0.3529 per 1,000 residents during an average year, according to the statistics.
There is a 1 in 1,512 chance of being kidnapped in the western neighborhoods of the county, which is closest to Ocean Beach.
