DEPUTIES SAY PREP WRESTLING CHAMP BLOCKED KIDNAP ATTEMPT

N.M.» A 16-yearLAS CRUCES, old prep wrestling champion helped stop a kidnapping and assault by pinning a man to the ground until deputies arrived, authorities said.

Mayfield High School student Canaan Bower is being lauded as a hero after controlling suspect Daniel Arroyo Beltran, 22, of Phoenix, the Las Cruces SunNews reported on Thursday.

Dona Ana County deputies arrested Beltran on Wednesday after witnesses told authorities he tried to kidnap three children at a gas station.

The mother told authorities that she got off at a bus stop with her children, ages 9,2 and 1, and was waiting for an ride-hailing driver to arrive when a man grabbed her 2-year-old child and demanded that the woman turnover her children.

Witnesses told authorities them an punched the woman and others who tried to intervene before the woman was able to rush inside the store with her children. Witnesses said the attacker followed, continuing his demands.

“Punches were being thrown, and (he could hear) screams of terror. So he jumped in his truck and went across the street,” Bower’s father, Troy, told the Sun-News. “By the time he got there, they had gone inside. And so he got out of his truck and went inside.”

Troy Bower added that his son told him he bodyslammed the suspect and put him in a chokehold until deputies arrived.

Canaan Bow er won the District 3-5A championship in the 285-pound heavyweight division Feb. 16 and competed at the state wrestling tournament.

“You fear for your own child’s safety in that situation,” Troy Bower said.

“You don’t know if this guy’s maybe got a gun or a knife — you don’t know what this guy’s capable of.”

However, Troy Bower said he was confident that his son would do the right thing.

There’s no indication in police reports that the suspect knew the mother or her children.

Beltran was charged with battery, assault, child abuse and kidnapping, and he remained jailed Friday.