A Covington woman fought off a butcher-knife-wielding man who tried to kidnap her and her grandchild in broad daylight in a craft store parking lot in Conyers Wednesday.
"She said she wasn't going to let anything happen to that baby," Conyers Police Chief Gene Wilson told the Rockdale County News.
A suspect is being held in the Rockdale County Jail and faces charges in the kidnapping, Wilson told the newspaper.
Wilson told the newspaper that the woman, who is in her 50s, walked out of Hobby Lobby on Ga. Highway 138 at about 4 p.m. Wednesday to her car, which was parked near the front of the store. The woman put the child in the car and then went around to the driver's side door. The suspect came up and held the knife to the woman's throat in an apparent attempt to take her, the car and the child inside the car, Wilson told the newspaper.
Wilson said the woman saved herself by screaming and continuing to scream. When people came to the woman's aid, the suspect dropped the knife and fled in a rental car. A passerby jumped in his car and followed the suspect south on Ga. 138 until the suspect ditched the car behind a U.S. Post Office, Wilson told the newspaper.
Police caught the suspect a short time later, Wilson said.
The suspect, who is believed to be from Atlanta and in his 20s, has been charged with armed robbery, kidnapping and endangering a child, Wilson said. He said the suspect would be identified through fingerprints after he gave police two different names.
Wilson told the newspaper the suspect was wearing two pairs of pants and had latex gloves and wire ties to use as handcuffs on him.
He said the victim sustained bruises to her arms and emotional trauma.
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