Third city girl fends off abduction attempt

3/24/2006

For the third time in eight days, a teenage girl reported that she was the victim of an abduction attempt while walking on a Toledo street.

Police said yesterday's victim, a 15-year-old girl walking to school along Yates Street in North Toledo about 7:30 a.m., reached an alley immediately west of the corner of Lagrange Street, where she noticed a man in the alley walking toward her.

"Come here," the man reportedly said, prompting the girl to walk faster toward Lagrange.

The girl told police the man then ran up behind her and grabbed her around the upper body in the parking lot of the Gold Star Market.

She fought back, kicking the man in the groin area, which caused him to weaken his grasp enough for the girl to break free, she told police.

"She did the right thing. That's what we're trying to teach them to do," said Toledo police spokesman Sgt. Richard Murphy.

The girl ran home and immediately called police. She reported that she last saw the man running across Lagrange to the parking lot of an IGA food store.

The suspect was described as a very dark-complexioned black male in his 30s, about 6 feet tall, with facial acne, a tattoo on his neck, and two gold front teeth with diamonds in them. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, black, knee-length jacket, black pants, and white Nike tennis shoes.

Sergeant Murphy said officers interviewing residents in the surrounding area found a mother who said the same thing had happened to her daughter recently, but she had not reported it.

Yesterday's attempted abduction came just two days after a 14-year-old girl was kidnapped at gunpoint by a man on the 300 block of Moorish Avenue and driven to the 1400 block of Lincoln Avenue. There, the girl told police, the man pulled down his pants and told her, "You know what I want."

The victim told police she escaped after finding a hammer under the passenger seat and hitting the man in the groin.

The girl fled to her grandmother's home nearby, from where police were called. The suspect in that assault was described as a white male with black hair, a braided goatee, and yellowed teeth. He was 6-foot-4, about 285 pounds, and was wearing a red, long-sleeve shirt; dark blue jeans, and white K-Swiss tennis shoes.

On March 16, a 15-year-old girl told police that a man tried to pull her inside a green truck about 3:45 p.m. while she was walking along Clinton Street toward Oakwood Avenue in the central-city area. The girl fought off the man, who was described as black, 38 to 40 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, with a goatee.

Sergeant Murphy said it did not appear the attacks were related as the suspect descriptions were different. However, he said detectives on the cases will collaborate to make sure.

Anyone with information about the crimes is asked to call 419-936-3825.

Contact Tad Vezner at:

tvezner@theblade.com

or 419-724-6050.