Kent Police: Second attempted kidnapping in less than a week

A 911 caller contacted Kent Police on July 19 – three days after another kidnapping attempt was foiled in Kent – ​​after an unknown adult male reached through a window in the caller’s home and abducted the young daughter.

“Officers quickly arrived on scene and were informed by the child’s parents that while she was in the bathroom, an unknown man had reached through the window, threatened her and grabbed her daughter by the hair,” Kent Police wrote on social media. “He pulled her upwards as if he was going to take her through the window.”

Unable to get the girl out of the house, the suspect fled in an unknown direction. Several canine units and Kent officers, assisted by the King County Sheriff’s Guardian 1 helicopter, searched for the suspect, but were unable to locate him at the time of this report.

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The suspect is described as an adult black male, between 5’7″ and 5’9″ tall. Kent Police said he is “rather slim”, bald and has facial hair. He is in his early 40s and was wearing a blue hoodie during the incident.

Kent Police have asked the public for anyone living near this address to check their cameras for footage of the suspect before and after 10.46pm on Friday evening.

“If you believe you caught the suspect on video or have any other information about the suspect or this incident, please send a message to [email protected] or call our tip line at 253-856-5808,” Kent police wrote.

Second kidnapping attempt in Kent within a week

The Kent Police Department (KPD) thanked three 11-year-old girls for preventing a kidnapping at an apartment complex on Tuesday.

On July 16, at approximately 8:18 p.m., several Kent Patrol officers were dispatched to an East Hill apartment complex after receiving a 911 call describing a male suspect attempting to abduct a little girl. The caller told 911 that he saw the man pick up the girl while she was screaming. The 911 caller believed the man did not appear to be a relative.

Before calling 911, three girls – each eleven years old – were getting ice cream from a local ice cream truck when they saw an adult man forcibly holding the wrist of their six-year-old neighbor.

According to witness statements to the KPD, the girls said the 6-year-old girl was scared and they heard her telling the man to let her go. They followed her because it was obvious to them that she was trying to escape the older man.

Eventually, the witnesses began recording the incident on their phones and approached the man to ask him to leave them alone.

As the 11-year-old girls approached with their cell phones filming him, he picked up the child and tried to “walk away quickly.” The girls persisted and noticed the 6-year-old victim shaking her head when they asked the man if he knew them, to which he replied yes.

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“At this point he placed the victim on the ground and they grabbed her away from the suspect, who then fled on foot,” Kent Police said. “They took her back to the safety of her apartment. The parents later confirmed that the suspect was a stranger.”

The suspect, Hayder Albu Mohammed, 40, was arrested and charged with attempted kidnapping. A judge set his bail at $250,000. According to FOX 13, the kidnapping suspect initially asked the 6-year-old girl to help him with his prayer beads and claimed he had done nothing wrong. He had several obvious defensive scratches on his arms that indicated the girl was trying to fight him off.

“The little girl is now safe, the man is in prison and we are incredibly impressed by the maturity and protectiveness of these pre-pubescent girls,” the Kent Police statement continued. “Without their intervention, the excellent description of the suspect by the 911 caller and the quick response of several KPD officers, the outcome would have been dramatically different. It took a whole village to achieve this outcome. We love our village.”

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and email him here.