Two Good Samaritans helped stop a child abduction in the Queens borough of New York City over the weekend, police officers said.
Relyn Estrada, 40, targeted an 11-year-old girl while she was walking to school on Dec. 15, and forced her into his car before two men intervened and stopped him from taking off.
Edwin Gonzalez and another neighbor, identified later as Alexander Salas, heard the struggle and rushed outside.
“We heard something, I heard Alex. And I came outside just like [the neighbor]. And we basically kept his attention on us,” he told NY 1.
The men heard the girl being taken because she kept kicking and screaming.
Estrada grabbed a baseball bat from his car and the neighbor was armed with a baseball bat as well.
“[Salas] came downstairs and said, ‘leave her alone,’ and he started cursing,” Gonzalez said.
“He literally had her sideways and she’s fighting with him, he’s trying to put her in the car head first,” Salas told CBS. “She fought, she kicked, she screamed, she did everything and she used her phone. She saved her own life, I didn’t. She did everything the right way I was just there to help her.”
“He was going to hit her with the bat. He had the bat over her head and had her down. It was just nerve-wracking,” he added. “When I saw her she was kicking to get out of the car, and that’s when I yelled and I told her, ‘Do you know him?!?’ She said, ‘No, please help me!’”
Salas’s wife called the police, who rushed to the scene.
Man charged with trying to abduct 11-year-old in Queens https://t.co/DpA6ZIDM0k pic.twitter.com/IeyRzho3Zc
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) December 16, 2018
The girl was able to get out of the car after the neighbors rushed over.
“Asked her, ‘do you know the guy?’ and the little girl came out without saying a word and just said no. She started tapping on her iPhone five times—basically send a signal to the police department,” Gonzalez told ABC 7.
Gonzalez said the goal was to delay Estrada until police officers arrived. The girl managed to escape as the trio was arguing and she was not hurt.
Eventually, officers arrived and arrested Estrada, who is a registered level 1 sex offender. He has been arrested 13 times before, since 2001, for sexual abuse and assault charges.
The latest incident ended with him being charged with kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and other charges. If convicted of the top count in the case, he could spend up to 25 years in jail.
???? RECOGNIZE THIS GUY?
Relyn Estrada was arrested for attempting to KIDNAP an 11-year-old girl in Queens on 12/15/18. @NYPDSVU is asking anyone with additional info on this person or anyone that may have been a victim of his to please contact @NYPDTips at ☎️ 800-577-TIPS pic.twitter.com/5NkON1rEla— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) December 17, 2018
Missing Children
There were 464,324 missing children reported in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center in 2017, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Under federal law, when a child is reported missing to law enforcement they must be entered into the database. In 2016, there were 465,676 entries.
“This number represents reports of missing children. That means if a child runs away multiple times in a year, each instance would be entered into NCIC separately and counted in the yearly total. Likewise, if an entry is withdrawn and amended or updated, that would also be reflected in the total,” the center noted.
In 2017, the center said it assisted officers and families with the cases of more than 27,000 missing children. In those cases, 91 percent were endangered runaways, and 5 percent were family abductions.
About one in seven children reported missing to the center in 2017 were likely victims of child sex trafficking.
Nancy McBride, the executive director of Florida Outreach at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said that most of the runaways involve technology.
“(Technology) has great benefits and some potential risks,” McBride told USA Today in 2017. “It’s important to stay plugged into their lives.” Tech is utilized by online predators, McBride said, who exploit gaps when the child’s relationship with their parents isn’t strong.