A teenage girl in Florida successfully fought off a man who allegedly tried to abduct her on the way home from school.
The suspect remains at large, while Lauderhill police said they are investigating the incident as an attempted kidnapping.
A $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the man’s arrest.
Surveillance footage from Monday, Oct. 7, shows the moment when Kymorah Reid, 13, got off the school bus in Lauderhill outside Fort Lauderdale when a man approached from behind and grabbed her ankle.
“I was screaming at him, saying, ‘What are you doing? Get off me,’” Kymorah told local station WPLG.
The girl kicked the man and ran away, screaming for help. The attacker fled on foot.
Kymorah came home in a panic and told her mother what just happened, but when she ran outside, the suspect was gone.
Kymorah sustained scrapes on her ankle and elbow but was otherwise OK.
“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 station. “She was definitely a brave child to put up a fight.”
The attack happened along the 5000 block of Northwest 18th Court, where the girl said she heard the man approaching from behind.
“I heard, like, this guy running, like jogging, so I moved out of his way,” she said.
Kymorah’s mother, Lois Kerr, expressed shock upon seeing the footage of her daughter’s attack. However, she was thankful that Kymorah emerged from the incident 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.”
The suspect is described as a light-skinned Black male, likely in his late teens or early 20s, with short hair. At the time of the incident, he was wearing a yellow shirt and red shorts.
After the frightening episode, Kymorah warned other children to be aware of their surroundings.
“Pay attention, ’cause you never know when somebody might creep up you and snatch you and, like, you’ll never see your family and friends again,” she said.
Since the incident, Kerr said she has been reassuring Kymorah while waiting for word that the man who attacked her daughter will be caught soon.
“She’s safe. She’s gonna be all right, and I won’t leave her side,” Kerr said. “He needs to seek Jesus, and secondly, he needs to turn himself in.”
