A Ring doorbell camera has captured the terrifying moment a man allegedly tried to abduct a six-year-old Ohio girl as she was taking out the trash.
The incident took place last week in Hamilton, Ohio, when Mandie Miller, the girl’s mom, asked her daughter to perform her usual chore of taking a bag of garbage out to the sidewalk.
“She came in with a blood-curling scream, she ran into the living room, she said, ‘Mommy, someone tried to take me,'” Miller told CNN. “I went outside and saw him walking down the sidewalk.”
In video captured by the doorbell camera, a man, later identified as 33-year-old Deric McPherson, is seen walking up to the girl and appearing to grab at her. She pulls away quickly, but he attempts to grab her again, this time holding on to her wrist.
The scared little girl can be heard screaming as she pulls her wrist free from his grip and runs back to the house. The suspect is then seen calmly walking away from the scene.
According to court documents and the victim’s parents, the suspect also groped the little girl during the attempted abduction.
WLWT reports that the girl’s parents tried chasing the suspect on foot before her father began pursuing him in a car until police could arrest him.
The girl’s father, Ricky Miller, told the outlet he thinks previous talks with their daughter about what to do in an abduction situation likely saved her from being taken.
“I’ve always told her that if somebody ever touches her, talks to her or grabs her, make a scene, scream as loud as she can and fight,” Ricky said. “She screamed bloody murder and pulled against him and got away from him.”
McPherson is currently being held in Butler County Jail on a fifth-degree felony abduction charge.
It is unclear when he will next appear in court.