California: Dramatic video shows attempted kidnapping of 4-year-old girl through store door
Terry Ransom was charged with kidnapping and child cruelty.
A heart-stopping surveillance video shows a four-year-old girl suddenly yanked out the door of a mobile phone store in Victorville, southern California, in an attempted kidnapping while the girl's mother stands nearby with her baby in her arms.
The mother screams as the girl is grabbed, and she and another customer race out to rescue her daughter. The girl, meanwhile, fought off the man, breaking his grip on her, and ran back to her mother.
Bystanders chased after the suspect and tackled him until police arrived to arrest him, reported KCAL-9 TV.
Terry Ransom, 24, was booked at the High Desert Detention Center and was charged with kidnapping and child cruelty.
The mother described the incident, saying that there was a man carefully watching her and her daughter as she entered the store.
The girl was scared, but did not appear to be physically injured. The video ends as her mother comforts her in a chair.
Ransom's family, who attended his court hearing, believe he was high on drugs when the incident occurred, and noted that he has five children of his own, ABC-7 TV reported.
"He was in the hospital previously, but that day he was so strung out he doesn't recall anything besides what happened before he used at that current time," said Ransom's cousin Drew Kelley, who apologised on his relative's behalf.
Ransom's bail was set at $250,000 (£193,000). Surveillance cameras captured a recent similar attempted kidnapping in Florida. In that incident, video footage shows a mother fighting off a suspected kidnapper who was dragging her 13-year-old daughter in Dollar General Store in Hernando. The man, identified as Craig Bonello, was arrested outside the store.
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