Mikaya Williams (Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office). Background: Intersection of Edgewood Avenue and Moncrief Road in Jacksonville, Florida, where Williams is accused of abducting a 9-year-old boy (Google Maps).
Florida authorities commend the “heroic” efforts of a Good Samaritan who stepped in to save a 9-year-old boy kidnapped while selling water on the street.
The event took place around 9 p.m. on June 27 in Jacksonville, as reported by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. The young boy was vending water to passersby at the intersection of Edgewood Avenue and Moncrief Road when a woman, later identified as 22-year-old Mikaya Williams, approached him in her car. He had no prior acquaintance with Williams, investigators noted.
Williams allegedly said, “Get in the car, your mom said get in the car” and “come here, get in the car I got your money.” The woman put the boy’s cooler in the back of the car, and then allegedly pushed him inside.
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“Once inside the car, he said he was crying, shaking and screaming,” detectives wrote. “He stated the suspect turned the car radio up and was speeding with him inside.”
That’s when the Good Samaritan, Shameika Dowell, sprang into action. She knows the boy and his family and happened to witness the alleged kidnapping.
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“I’m like, ‘Are you serious?,'” Dowell recalled to local NBC affiliate WJAX. “I’m looking at someone snatch one of our kids and pulling them in the car. It was a ‘think fast Meika, move quick. You gotta get this child, move quick.'”
Dowell hopped in her car and chased down Williams. Eventually Dowell caught up to the suspect and cornered her in, she told the TV station.
She ran up to the suspect vehicle and started kicking the passenger door until it opened. Dowell pulled out the boy and his cooler.
Cops arrested Williams and returned the boy back to his family. Post Miranda, Williams said she was on her “crazy medicine” at the time of the incident.
“JSO thanks the heroic witness who stepped in and helped rescue the child from a dangerous situation,” the agency said in a Facebook post.
Williams faces a charge of kidnapping and is at the Jacksonville jail without bond. Her next court date is scheduled for July 21.
