Gwinnett County police are watching out for a man who approached three women over the past three days in a shopping center and allegedly tried to abduct one of them out of a Barnes & Noble bookstore, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Police have stepped up their presence in and around the Forum on Peachtree Parkway shopping mall in the 5100 block of Peachtree Parkway near Norcross.
The first incident happened shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday, when a man approached a 20-year-old woman who was browsing through magazines in the Barnes & Noble, according to a police incident report. The man allegedly grabbed the woman by the arm and told her, “Come with me.”
She demanded that he release her, but he refused, saying she was “the one,” police said.
“As she was being dragged towards the door, customers saw this, they heard her screaming, and they intervened,” Cpl. Jake Smith, Gwinnett police spokesman, told Channel 2. One man pushed the suspect away. The alleged assailant repeated, “She is the one, it is meant to be.”
The suspect then went to the bookstore coffee shop, bought a cup of coffee and left, police said. He allegedly continued to stare at the woman and smile.
Outside, the man got into his car and drove up to a 17-year-old female, asking her for directions to the Mall of Georgia, police said. When the woman’s boyfriend walked up, the suspect drove away. They described the vehicle to police as a silver passenger car.
On Tuesday night, a man suspected to be the same person approached another woman at the Forum, telling her, "God had chosen her to be his significant other, his wife," Smith said. The woman was able to get away from him.
Police described the suspect as a “Middle Eastern-looking man” from his mid 20s to late 30s, with brownish skin, black hair and a balding head. He was wearing khaki shorts and a white shirt. One witness said he was 5 feet 9 inches tall with a medium build.
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