6-year-old Miami girl escapes alleged kidnapper after biting his arm: Police
A 6-year-old girl in Miami thwarted her own kidnapping outside her home after she bit the attacker, according to the Miami Police Department.
Police arrested Leonardo Venegas on Saturday in connection to the alleged abduction, an arrest affidavit shows. He was charged with kidnapping and child abuse.
The child was playing with her siblings in the courtyard of their apartment complex in Miami on Thursday when they noticed a white SUV near the apartment, according to the affidavit.
After her siblings went inside, the 6-year-old girl sat on the rear stairway of her apartment when she was suddenly grabbed by the suspect, whom police identified as Leonardo Venegas, the affidavit shows.
Police said Venegas allegedly picked up the child and began to carry her away when she bit him on the arm, resulting in him dropping her. Venegas allegedly slapped the child and ran toward the front of the apartment complex, according to the affidavit.
“I bit him,” the 6-year-old told ABC News Miami affiliate WPLG.
“He picked me up and then he slapped me,” she told the station. “Then he threw me on the floor and started running.”
The 6-year-old ran to the front of the building and told her aunt what happened, according to the affidavit.
Miami police said CCTV footage showed a white Range Rover entering the apartment complex and the suspect walking to the rear of the complex towards the staircase, where the 6-year-old was sitting.
The victim confirmed the man seen in the CCTV footage was the same person who allegedly tried to kidnap her, Miami police said.
Police found the white SUV at an address in Miami and then took Venegas into custody, according to the arrest record.
An attorney for Venegas did not immediately return ABC News' request for comment.
In a separate incident in Florida from May, a 6-year-old girl in Daytona Beach was almost kidnapped after walking home from church with her mom on Mother's Day, according to the Daytona Beach Police Department.
The child and her mother were walking home hand-in-hand from Our Lady of Lourdes Church when a woman blocked them from moving any further, according to an incident report obtained by ABC News affiliate WFTV.
The woman then "intentionally grabbed" the 6-year-old, trying to break the grip between her and her mother, the report said. Ultimately unsuccessful, the suspect fled.
In another alleged abduction attempt from March, Jamaal Germany, 30, allegedly tried to kidnap a student standing at a bus stop in Gaithersburg, Maryland while waiting to be picked up by their school bus, according to the Montgomery County Police Department.
Germany is still in custody and his next court appearance is in September, according to the Montgomery County Detention Center. His plea information was not immediately available.
The alleged kidnapping attempt was foiled by a group of kids who came to the victim's defense, police said.
ABC News' Jon Haworth and Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.
