Attempted abduction
Sunset Ridge Student fights off kidnapper
by Jennifer Krahe

DESERT HILLS – The white SUV had been seen in the vicinity of Desert Hills before. And last Friday morning, as students were waiting at their bus stop, the vehicle was in their neighborhood once again. The driver was a male Caucasian with a gray beard, approximately 30 to 40 years old.

“At 9:15 on May 5,” reported Lt. Paul Chagolla of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, “an unknown adult white male driving a white SUV with dark tinted windows assaulted a 12‑year‑old male.” The boy, a sixth grader at Sunset Ridge School, 35707 N. 33rd Lane in north Phoenix, was sitting at a bus stop near 29th Avenue and Irvine.

“He grabbed the juvenile by the wrist and attempted to pull him into the vehicle,” Chagolla said. “The juvenile fought the attacker with a stick and the assailant fled unharmed.”

The attempted abduction has teachers, students, parents and transportation personnel in the Deer Valley Unified School District deep in conversation.

“We certainly do talk to our students about safety, and unfortunately it took this event to re‑raise student and parent awareness,” said Sunset Ridge Assistant Principal Deb Roets on Tuesday.

Parents are encouraged to take this opportunity to talk to their children about safety.

“I tell my kids: Say no, run away, scream!” said Joyce Cooley, a secretary at Sunset Ridge and a parent of young children herself.

“We promote the buddy system (sibling or friend) on and off campus. Even more important is that students are where they are supposed to be and take the same route every day to and from school. Parents must know where they are,” Roets asserted.

“Its so scary; we don’t want to have to deal with this ever again, Principal Rhea Acosta said. “Those weirdos are out there. If anything happened to even one child...,” she forewarned. “Every kid here is mine.”                            

Reach the reporter at jennifer@thedesertadvocate.com.