A quick-thinking New York City mother thwarted an attempted kidnapping by pulling her 5-year-old son through the window of the suspects’ car as they tried to drive away.
The incident happened Thursday night in Queens as the boy was walking down the street with his mother and other people. Police said a male suspect exited his vehicle, grabbed the boy and placed him in the back seat while a second suspect sat in the front passenger seat.
As the male suspect got back into the car and tried to drive away, the boy’s mother yanked her son out of the car through a window.
A video of the terrifying ordeal was released by the New York Police Department and shows the suspects’ vehicle parked by the curb. The boy is seen walking slightly ahead of his mother.
The male suspect jumps out of the car and snatches the boy away, the video shows. The mother and other people who were with her run toward the car to save the child. Before the car can pull away, the mother is seen pulling her son through the open front passenger window. Several people tried to stop the vehicle as it drove away.
Police said the boy was not injured.
NBC New York identified the mother as Dolores Diaz. She told the news station that she tried to open the car door but it was locked. Her son was able to open the window in the car and she reached in and pulled him out.
The ordeal has left her shaken. “I’m scared,” Diaz told NBC New York.
One of the suspects, James McGonagle, 24, of Queens, was arrested Friday on charges of attempted kidnapping, reckless endangerment and acting in a manner injurious to a child younger than 17, authorities said in a tweet. The second suspect has not been arrested.
It’s not clear if McGonagle has obtained an attorney.