Surveillance Video Shows Would-Be Kidnapper Of Roxbury Girl
BOSTON (CBS) -- It was early yesterday morning on Blue Hill Avenue that something caught the attention of a witness right near an alleyway, and just in the nick of time. Now, surveillance video shows what appears to be someone stopping a car deliberately to follow a girl.
It is dark as the 13-year-old makes her way to the bus stop and beside her a car is backing up. Surveillance cameras at a nearby convenience store then capture a man getting out and begin to follow her on Blue Hill Avenue.
"I just heard screaming," witness Maria Lacey said. "And I could tell it sounded like a younger person. It made me jump up out of my bed."
The man had apparently grabbed and pulled the young girl into an alleyway just steps from the bus. Walking in front of the victim was Valerey Pearson.
"When I turned around, I saw the girl's body jolt like somebody pulled her," Pearson said. "So I walked in the back of the alley and I could hear her screaming and hollering."
Pearson hoped she could attract some attention.
"When I ran back there I didn't really know what to do, I didn't know whether he had a gun or not," she said. "So I just started screaming too. I told the little girl to run and the guy jumped over the fence and got away."
Pearson hadn't seen the man in the neighborhood before, and police hope the surveillance image is recognizable.
The fact that someone stalked and attempted to abduct the girl has alarmed the neighborhood.
"It's scary because there are a lot of children that come out in the alley by themselves and it's still dark in the morning," Lacy said.
Pearson believes it was fortunate she was walking at the same time they were.
"I thank God I was there to help and I hope the family is OK," she said.
The girl's family says she also tried to kick this man to defend herself, but in the end it seems all of the screaming was enough to scare him away.
