An 11-year-old boy has been hailed a ‘hero’, after helping to thwart the abduction of his seven-year-old neighbour.
TJ was out playing by his home, in Wichita, on Saturday, when he saw a man take the little girl from her own front-garden.
In an interview with ABC 7 News, TJ recalled: “If I was that little girl, I would be scared too. She was riding her scooter and he picked her up and started walking, and I chased after him.”
Police: Abductor intended to sexually assault child: https://t.co/Bh6NK0Bxn3 pic.twitter.com/5QH6STiXEb
— Times Record News (@timesrecordnews) December 12, 2016
After giving chase, TJ flagged down neighbour James Ware and his wife, and told them what had happened.
Ware then pursued the abductor, who has since been named as Raeshawn Perez, and caught up with him just as he was putting the unnamed little girl through the window of an abandoned house.
Ware managed to then pin Perez down and hold him until the police arrived and made an arrest.
Still in shock over the incident, neighbours have praised young TJ’s bravery and reckon he prevented a potential tragedy.
Neighbour Pamela Brown told ABC: “For him to go by himself like that and chase the man – that was awesome, but also it was scary. He could have got him too, but he is a hero.”
