A Florida teen was able to fight off her wannabe kidnapper and send him running after he tried to drag her away with him during her walk home from school.
Dramatic footage shows the moment Kymorah Reid, 13, stepped off her school bus at around 5:30 p.m. in Lauderhill outside Fort Lauderdale when a man suddenly approached her from behind and grabbed her right ankle.
“I was screaming at him, saying, ‘What are you doing? Get off me,’” Kymorah told local WPLG.
The 13-year-old girl was able to kick the man away. Her screams attracted attention and forced the creep to flee on foot.
Lauderhill police said they are investigating the incident as an attempted kidnapping, with cops seeking help in tracking down the suspect.
“We don’t know if she was followed [or] if this guy was just casing the area waiting for a potential victim,” officer Antonio Gonzales told the local outlet.
“She was definitely a brave child to put up a fight,” he added.
Kymorah’s mother, Lois Kerr, was horrified to see the footage of her daughter being attacked, but said she was grateful the teen was able to make it out unharmed.
“It was devastating. Nerve-wracking, everything,” Kerr told NBC Miami. “They tried to kidnap my daughter, like everything inside of me stirred, like turned upside down.”
Police have described the suspect as a light-skinned black male in his late teens or early 20s with short hair. He was wearing a yellow shirt and red shorts at the time of the incident.
Authorities are currently offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the suspect’s arrest.