16-Year-Old Girl Speaks Out After Man Tries To Abduct Her In The Bronx
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Bronx teenager is telling her story after she fought off an attacker who police said grabbed her from behind on a Bronx street and tried dragging her into his car.
Police released a sketch early Tuesday of the man the 16-year-old Mount Eden teenager said attacked her on East Clarke Place just after 6 a.m. on Oct. 28 as she was walking to work at an area grocery store.
Police say the suspect was driving a four-door black car that was captured on surveillance video. He parked at an angle and got out.
"He grabs me and he puts me in a chokehold where I couldn't speak, but I could breathe," the victim told CBS2's Erin Logan. "He kept threatening me saying he had a gun and a knife."
The teen admits there's a chance she could've been forewarned as he approached her from behind.
"I was walking down the street with two earphones in so I couldn't really hear anything," she said.
Once in that chokehold, the teen said she knew she had to fight back.
"He starts dragging me to the car and I trip and fall and so he tries to open the trunk and he punches me in the face," she said, adding that they both fell to the ground during the struggle. "I'm like, 'I'm not going in that trunk' and so I start getting up and start kicking him."
When she screamed, the teen said, "He puts his hands up on my mouth and so I bite his finger and he yells."
That's when the man got back in his car and took off.
Looking back, the victim said she's surprised he didn't take her phone or wallet. She said during the attack, she told him several times, "You could take everything."
Thankful to have walked away with just cuts and bruises, the teen has this advice, "Please be careful and please don't have two earphones in when you're walking down the street by yourself."
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
