Man attempts to kidnap woman
FORT LAUDERDALE — A woman walked briskly down an empty alleyway early on a recent September morning, heading for the beach. The sky above was still dark and few cars were driving on nearby main roads as it neared 6 a.m.
She stared straight ahead, a backpack slipped securely over both shoulders, unaware of the man beginning to jog up behind her.
Nearly a month after the harrowing encounter, Fort Lauderdale Police say they have “exhausted all available investigative leads” and have yet to find the man who tried to kidnap the woman.
A video released this week shows the frightening scene from the morning of Sept. 9.
The alley, located in the 500 block of East Las Olas Boulevard, sits between a dirt lot filled with construction equipment and a parking garage at the bottom of a building to the right, no cars in sight.
The woman entered the frame of the surveillance video just after 5:54 a.m.
Less than a minute later, a shirtless man wearing black pants and white shoes entered the frame, leisurely running behind her, his right arm gripping his pants. He appeared to speed up as the woman approached the end of the alley. She didn’t realize the man was inching closer with every step.
Detectives believe the man had been following her that morning but did not know for how long, said Lt. DeAnna Greenlaw, a spokesperson for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.
Once he reached the woman, the suspect grabbed her, choked her and threw her onto the ground, according to Fort Lauderdale Police. In the video, the woman appeared to attempt to move away from the man while he stands over her. He then started to drag the woman before a bystander intervened.
The witness who intervened was working at a nearby construction site. While the man attacked the victim from behind, “the witness heard her and immediately ran to help,” Greenlaw said, his “heroic actions” causing the man to run away. The witness then called police.
In the video, someone walked in the parking lot as the man turned back down the alley and jogged away, running at the same pace as when he started to follow the woman. He turned and looked over his left shoulder before exiting the video’s frame, the whole encounter taking less than three minutes.
The man headed north on a bicycle before police arrived, according to police.
Greenlaw said the incident was first considered a misdemeanor “based on the information obtained by officers on scene.” After detectives interviewed the woman and the witness who helped her, Greenlaw
said detectives determined “a more serious crime had occurred,” issuing the alert this week.
Detectives do not have information that the man in
the video has been involved in any other incidents.
Authorities ask anyone with information about the attempted kidnapping to call Detective Tiana DeQuarto at 954-828-6559 or to anonymously contact Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.