PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WHDH) - A man has been ordered held without bail after alarming surveillance camera video allegedly showed him kidnapping a 9-year-old girl who had just gotten off her school bus in Providence, Rhode Island on Monday afternoon.
Luis Martinez-Romero, 34, of Cranston, R.I., appeared in court Wednesday on charges of kidnapping of a minor and second-degree sexual assault.
The girl had gotten off her bus and began walking through the area of Grover and Merino streets around 3 p.m. Monday when Martinez-Romero stopped a silver SUV, grabbed her and put her in the vehicle, police said.
Mayra Lopez, whose surveillance camera captured the abduction, recalled the girl trying to get away.
“She went to go around the car thinking he was going to park there. She went around to go home,” she recalled. “He came out quick and grabbed the little girl, choked her neck like a headlock, and put his hand over her mouth. And I saw the little girl’s hand like trying to get away.”
The girl was returned to a nearby location about an hour later, police said.
Roughly 25 detectives worked together to apprehend Martinez-Romero on Tuesday.
Police say that he was holding a baby at the time of his arrest and that he is married.
The incident has left the neighborhood on edge.
“I’m worried about the kids who are around her,” another neighbor said.
Police are reminding parents and guardians to urge their children to be aware of their surroundings and to be wary if they are approached by adults they do not know.
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