Left: Leonardo Venegas (Miami-Dade (Fla.) Corrections and Rehabilitation). Right: Lyric, 6, says she bit Venegas when he tried to kidnap her (via WPLG).
A 6-year-old girl is being hailed as a hero for saving herself from an alleged would-be kidnapper.
Lyric — identified in local reports only by her first name — says that when Leonardo Venegas tried to abduct her as she was playing outside her apartment in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood in Florida, she knew what to do.
“I bit him,” she told local ABC affiliate WPLG. Police say that was enough to stop Venegas, 32, from kidnapping the girl.
“He picked me up and then he slapped me,” Lyric also told reporters. “Then he threw me on the floor and started running.”
At the time, Lyric had been playing with her siblings in the courtyard of her apartment complex, according to the arrest report reviewed by Law&Crime. The kids noticed a white SUV parked near the victim’s apartment; most of them went inside, but Lyric sat on the rear stairway, the police report says.
“She was suddenly grabbed by the arm by a white male, later identified as the defendant, and pulled towards the rear of the stairs,” the arrest report says. “The victim began to fight back and pulled away from the defendant. The defendant then picked up the victim and began to carry her away. The victim bit the defendant on the arm causing him to drop her.”
After striking Lyric, Venegas then ran toward the front of the apartment complex while the girl ran around the building to tell her aunt what had just happened.
Police reviewed security footage and identified the white SUV allegedly driven by Venegas. Two days later, the arrest report says, investigators had tracked the vehicle to an address, where Venegas was arrested and taken into custody.
The arrest report says that Venegas waived his Miranda rights and spoke to a detective, although the details of what he said have been redacted from the document.
“Thankfully, the brave six-year-old girl fought for her safety and ultimately escaped the would-be abductor,” Miami Police said in a statement emailed to Law&Crime. However, detectives “believe there may be additional victims and are asking them to come forward[.]”
Lyric told reporters that she learned her self-defense techniques from her mother, who told WPLG that she taught her daughter to fight back.
“You have to teach your kids not to speak to strangers and protect themselves even when you’re not around,” Lyric’s mom Tisha McGill told the station.
Venegas has been charged with one count each of kidnapping and child abuse with no great bodily harm. Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation records show that Venegas is being held in detention without bond. He also appears to have an outstanding warrant for an expired driver’s license and a warrant for an apparent immigration violation.
More from Law&Crime: Young boy fended off sister’s would-be kidnapper with slingshot: Cops
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