A man on parole for manslaughter was arrested Wednesday after police said he attempted to kidnap a 7-year-old girl in a west Georgia Wal-Mart.
Bremen police charged Mr. Thomas Andrew Woods, 25, of Austell, with attempted kidnapping and more charges are expected, Chief Keith Pesnell said
Mr. Woods told reporters police have the wrong guy and that he was never in the store.
But Chief Pesnell said officers are confident Mr. Woods is the man who attempted to kidnap the girl with her mom a few aisles away and other people shopping inside the store.
“It was very bold to do what he’d done,” Chief Pesnell said.
Investigators said about 9:30 a.m. Mr. Woods started talking to Brittney Baxter in the toy aisle of the Wal-Mart and then grabbed her and placed his hand around her mouth.
“She began fighting, screaming when she could and he let her go,” Chief Pesnell said.
The man, who was caught on the store’s surveillance camera holding the child, then left the store, Chief Pesnell said.
Police issued a local and statewide alert of the incident and Mr. Woods was arrested about 10 miles away in Tallapoosa after a traffic stop, Chief Pesnell said.
"When she told me someone had tried to get her, I just couldn't believe it," Brittney's mother, Ms. Georgeann Baxter, told Channel 2 Action News.
Chief Pesnell praised the girl’s actions.
"She did exactly what we teach the little ones to do at a time like that," he told the news station.
Mr. Woods, who was in the Haralson County jail Wednesday, was released in October from the Wheeler Correctional Facility, where he had been since April 2007 following his conviction in DeKalb County for manslaughter, officials said.
According to the DeKalb County jail records, Mr. Woods, previously of Tucker, was arrested in October 2004, three months after the crime of which he was convicted. He was 17 years old at the time, according to The Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
The department interviewed Mr. Woods before arresting him Wednesday. Still, Chief Pesnell said they don’t know the motive for the incident.
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