Heroic rescue
HE STOPS KIDNAP OF GIRL, 11
A terrified 11-year-old girl being forced into a stranger’s car in Queens Saturday was saved by a pair of good Samaritans who stopped the frantic bat-wielding, would-be kidnapper in his tracks, officials said.
Fearless Ridgewood resident Alex Salas sprang into action when he saw registered sex offender Reylin Estrada, 40, grab the screaming girl and shove her into a white Honda Civic on Center St. near Seneca Ave. about 7:50 a.m.
“Who are you? A superhero?” Estrada asked Salas as the two squared off before police arrived.
“He had literally picked her up sideways,” Salas said, recounting the tense standoff. “I told her, ‘Don’t worry, don’t move.’ He was more concerned about me. (I said to myself ) ‘I’m going to do everything in my power not to let him go.’”
Salas, a father of two, was inside his apartment when he first heard the child’s screams.
“I just grabbed a bat and ran downstairs,” Salas said.
Salas’ landlord, Edwin Gonzalez, said when he heard the commotion and saw Salas run outside, he joined the fray.
“He ran outside in his shorts and T-shirt,” said Gonzalez, 59. “I heard him screaming, ‘Let go of the little girl! Let go of the little girl!’”
“I pulled out my cane,” Gonzalez said. “This is oak wood, and it won’t break, at all. We were ready to take him and do what we had to do to prevent the little girl from getting kidnapped.”
The youngster was on her way to a Saturday class at Intermediate School 77 when Estrada rolled up and offered her a ride.
When the girl refused, Estrada demanded that she get into his car. The panicked girl ran off, but Estrada chased her for four blocks before blocking her path with his vehicle just outside Salas’ home.
Through a window, Salas saw Estrada grab the frightened girl and shove her into the back of his vehicle.
“He grabbed her by the book bag and he brought her down,” Salas recalled. “He had the bat over her and he had her down. It was just nerve-wracking. (There was) no way in the world I was going to let him leave.”
Salas told his wife to call 911, and dashed outside with his own bat to stop the unfolding abduction. Gonzalez, cane in hand, showed up a second later.
When police arrived, Estrada and Salas were facing off, each armed with a bat.
“(Estrada) had a bat in his hand,” he said. “He was swinging it and cursing at us.”
Cops took Estrada into custody without incident and charged him with kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, acting in a manner injurious to a child and weapons possession, officials said.
Police sources said Estrada has an extensive criminal record, and became a registered sex offender after he attacked a woman in the same neighborhood in 2001.
“(It was) emotional,” Gonzalez said of the rescue. “Something that I don’t want anyone to go through. (Salas) was very emotional — and he’s the macho type.”
The youngster was rattled by the incident, but was not physically harmed and was returned to her parents, officials said.
Salas praised the little girl’s bravery.
“She saved her own life. She did everything the right way,” she said. “I was just there to help her.”
“God knows what he would have done,” he said. “I’m glad I did what I needed to.”
Outside the 104th Precinct stationhouse where Estrada son was being questioned, his mom, Jasmine Estrada, said he is mentally ill.
Reylin Estrada had recently stopped taking his medications and on Saturday morning swiped his mother’s Honda without her permission, she said.
“He took my car. He took my keys,” she said. “I’ve been dealing with this since he was 19. I’ve been going through hell all of these years.”