Three 'Amazing' 11-Year-Olds Thwart Abduction of 6-Year-Old Girl at Ice Cream Truck in Washington, Cops Say

Police in Washington are praising three “selfless” and “amazing” 11-year-old girls for thwarting an alleged kidnapping attempt after they noticed the 6-year-old victim “looked afraid.”

Around 8:20 p.m. on July 16, officers responded to an apartment complex in Kent regarding an attempted kidnapping in progress, according to the Kent Police Department.

The 911 caller said they “witnessed the man picking her up while she screamed and stated that the man did not appear to be a relative.”

Officers arrived within minutes of the call and were able to locate the suspect thanks to the caller’s “excellent description of the man," police noted.

The suspect, 40-year-old Hayder Albu Mohammed, allegedly tried to “hastily walk away,” but officers caught up with and detained him, according to law enforcement officials.

Police said an ice cream truck pulled into the apartment complex not long before the 911 call.

The three 11-year-old girls were reportedly walking to the truck when they saw the suspect holding a 6-year-old neighbor’s wrist. The young girl’s brother reportedly called her over, but she “was unable to break his hold.”

The little girl “looked afraid” and Mohammed was “pulling her forcibly along,” police said. The girl told him to let her go, but he refused.

This is when the 11-year-old girls intervened, as they started recording the incident on their phones. They then told the man to free her, but then he “picked up the child and tried to ‘speed walk’ away,” according to cops.

The girls then confronted Mohammed, asking if he knew her. When he told them he did, the little girl shook her head side to side to indicate he was lying, officials said. Her parents later confirmed that they did not know the suspect.

Mohammed then put the girl down and the other three girls pulled her away from him. He then fled as the girls took the victim back to her apartment, officers said.

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Mohammed was arrested and charged with kidnapping. He was booked into jail and was being held on a $250,000 bond.

In a statement, the Kent Police said, "The little girl is now safe, the man is in jail, and we are impressed beyond words at the maturity and protectiveness displayed by these preteen girls. Without their intervention, the excellent description of the suspect from the 911 caller, and the swift response by multiple KPD Officers, the outcome would have changed dramatically."