A mother was forced to fight off an attacker who attempted to kidnap her 13-year-old daughter from inside a shop.
Surveillance footage from inside the Florida convenience store captured the terrifying moment a 30-year-old man tried to abduct the girl.
Suspect Craig Bonello can be seen grabbing the girl, who was shopping with her mum, and dragging her to the front door of the shop.
Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said Bonello was “intentionally shopping around the girl and seen stretching on the video”.
“He searched out his victim. He went after that child,” Dawsy said at a press conference.
The teen’s mother didn’t stand by and watch, though. She chased, kicked and hit Bonello, grabbing her daughter back from him before he could get her away from the store.
“He got his butt kicked by the mom. That was the great thing about that video,” Dawsy said.
Just as the suspected kidnapper attempted to escape, off-duty Citrus County Sheriff’s Deputy Jonathan Behnen was getting out of his patrol car to enter the store.
The officer jumped back into his car and blocked Bonello from escaping.
“He truly intended to abduct this child right in front of everyone in the store,” he said.
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