A Missouri man is facing charges of stalking, kidnapping, and child endangerment following an alleged incident where he pursued a woman from a Target store to her home and attempted to abduct her while she was with her young son.
According to reports from the Springfield Daily Citizen, 30-year-old Joshua Allen York claimed he had initiated a conversation with the woman at the store, after which she supposedly invited him to her home but later changed her mind upon their arrival.
York reportedly admitted that her change of heart made him upset, prompting him to demand money from her before leaving as she began to scream for help.
However, a probable cause statement offers a different narrative. According to police, York was seen wandering around the store before noticing the woman and deciding to follow her. After she completed her purchases and left the store, he tailed her in his vehicle. Once she reached her apartment complex, she started to carry her groceries inside, leaving her 2-year-old son asleep in her car.
On her last trip, as she picked up her son and purse, she sensed something was wrong and looked back to find York crouched behind a nearby car. Confronting him by asking, “What are you doing?” she witnessed him approaching her aggressively.
York allegedly grabbed her around the waist and attempted to drag her into the parking lot. Despite holding her son, the woman resisted and screamed for help. A bystander driving by heard her “bloody murder scream” and rushed to assist, witnessing York push the woman and her son to the ground before fleeing to a black SUV and speeding away, as reported by Law&Crime.
Police used surveillance video from the apartment complex, a gas station, and traffic cameras to identify York as the suspect. He was arrested last week and is being held without bond.
York has a previous conviction for disturbing the peace and was initially charged with terroristic threats in that case, the Daily Citizen said.
