Photo: Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office
A Florida woman helped save two girls from an alleged kidnapper after he walked into a church with the victims.
David Daniels of Brandon, Fla., was arrested on two counts of child abuse and two counts of false imprisonment in connection with attempting to kidnap the children. Daniels is currently still in jail on a $104,000 bond as of Wednesday evening, according toarrest records.
Deputies with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said, according to local stationFox 13, that Daniels met the two children near Cherry’s Bar and Grill in FishHawk’s park square Sunday and told them he would walk them home.
A churchgoer recalled stopping the potential alleged kidnapping, telling the outlet, “I saw two children on their bicycles and a male adult behind them.”
At the time the woman, who did not want to be publicly identified or receive “any recognition,” was standing outside of a church and says she saw Daniels allegedly hit one of the children in the head. He also allegedly had a victim in a headlock, she told police.
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“One of the little girls was mouthing to me, ‘Please help me, this is not my dad,’ " the woman told Fox 13. “He was kind of talking over her, right behind her, putting his arm around her neck and saying something in her ear, saying, ‘We just moved here, we just want to see how we can help do whatever you’re doing.’ "
The witness said although she suspected Daniels was lying, she invited him into the church so she could alert police.
“I engaged in conversation with him,” she recalled. “I said, ‘Oh that’s nice, where did you move here from?’ He said, ‘Oh, I am not really sure.'”
Hillsborough County police later caught up with Daniels downtown and arrested him.
“He did not know these children and these children definitely did not know him,” Jessica Lang of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office toldWFLA, adding that Daniels went after the victims as they left a restaurant. “At this point, he’s following them out of the restaurant and starts to hit one of the children over the head and continues to follow them.”
Lang added that the girls rode their bikes to the church, where Daniels pursued them as they went inside.
She continued, “Members of this church really stepped up to protect children that were not theirs. They saw that something was wrong and they saved these children.”
The HCSO did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
It is not clear if Daniels has an attorney to speak on his behalf.
source: people.com
