Houston police are investigating after a 13-year-old boy was kidnapped from a bus stop Monday and was spotted running from his captors with ripped clothes and no shoes.
The child’s mother, Michelle Lee, said she called police when her teen son Zavion Parker didn’t come home from school. Parker was eventually found safe, but authorities said he likely suffered a “very traumatic experience,” local station KTRK reported.
The sixth-grader told police he was approached by five teenage boys (roughly 17-18 years old) shortly after he got off the school bus that afternoon. He said the boys forced him into a four-door vehicle with flames painted on the side and drove him to a vacant cabin where they assaulted him.
The suspects, who were driven to the home by an unidentified white male, reportedly stole Parker’s keys, phone, shoes and jacket, according to the news station. When the group went into another room to load an alleged gun, the teen said he ran as fast as he could.
That’s when witness Camecia Carmouche said she spotted the frightened boy running down the street shoeless as she was on her way home from work. Carmouche said she immediately contacted police.
Houston police officials describe the suspected driver as a white male with a muscular build and straight orange hair. Parker told police the man also had a distinctive tattoo on his arm that read “I hate Black people.”
Lee said she believes her son was targeted because of his race, adding that she received threatening text messages from his phone possibly from the suspects.
