Abduction attempt reported on girl, 16

Police investigating report of attack on way to bus stop.

RIVIERA BEACH — A 16-yearold William T. Dwyer High School student has walked the same half-mile route to the bus stop each school morning for the last three years.

Shortly after 6 a.m. Monday morning, that carefree walk almost ended with the high school junior’s abduction, said her father Herman McCray.

The teen, who The Post is not naming at her father’s request, was walking west on West Seventh Street toward Avenue O when she noticed a black Hyundai SUV drive past. Three women and a man were inside, McCray said.

The SUV returned and the man “immediately attacked her,” McCray said, pointing to the lawn of a home at the intersection of Avenue O and West Seventh Street.

The teen managed to fight off the man, who then sped away with the women in the SUV. He took her backpack, which was found near a Lake Park mechanic later that morning. A neighbor heard the struggle and called police.

Riviera Beach police said the SUV was reported stolen near the time of the alleged attempted abduction. They are investigating the case as both an attempted abduction and as a robbery by sudden snatching.

McCray’s son kicked on his door Monday morning to tell him the teen was trying to reach him.

“I immediately was like, ‘This can’t be happening,’” McCray said. “It’s a feeling that you can’t explain. You just know that you have to be there in less than a couple seconds.”

He ran the half-mile to where his daughter was talking to police.

She told him she didn’t recognize anyone in the SUV but could point them out if she saw them again.

Emotionally, the teen is shaken up, her father said. Physically, though, she is OK.

“We have to take them to the bus stop sometimes,” McCray said. “We shouldn’t have to, but we got to look out for them a little more than normal.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Riviera Beach police at 561-845-4123.