Heroic gas station clerk saves girl from sex offender amid alleged kidnapping after she mouths desperate plea to him
'She mouth-talked to me, like, with no sound,' the clerk said.
A 16-year-old Michigan girl was waiting for a bus in Hamtramck around 7:05 a.m. Monday when a male allegedly approached her, put a handgun to her back, and forced her into a van, WJBK-TV reported. Hamtramck is about 10 minutes north of Detroit.
The girl is a student at Frontier International Academy, the station said, and a fellow student witnessed the incident and reported it.
'I see the police outside. I point to him. I go, "That's the guy."'
The victim allegedly was sexually assaulted inside the suspect's vehicle, WJBK said.
Police went to the victim's school and met with students who were tracking her cell phone location, WJBK said, adding that officers used the data to track the victim to a Detroit gas station.
Around 7:30 a.m., the suspect brought the girl into the Sunoco gas station, asked for cigarettes — and told the girl to pay for them, WXYZ-TV reported
Store clerk Abdulrahman Abohatem told WXYZ that struck him as odd: "When he ask her to pay for the cigarettes, I said ... 'There's something wrong.'"
The girl then sent him a silent, desperate signal.
"She mouth-talked to me, like, with no sound," Abohatem told WXYZ.
He said her message was one word: "Help."
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With that, Abohatem came out from behind the protective glass and confronted the suspect, WXYZ said: "I go out, I kick him out, I ask the girl, 'Go behind me.'"
As Abohatem was escorting the male out of the store, police pulled into the parking lot, WXYZ said.
"I see the police outside. I point to him. I go, 'That's the guy,'" Abohatem added to WXYZ.
The suspect was quickly taken into custody, WXYZ reported.
City of Hamtramck Mayor Adam Alharbi told WXYZ the suspect is "a criminal who had a history of rape charges, and we will make sure that he gets what he deserves."
The girl's family said she is safe at home processing the incident and is thankful the community stepped up, WXYZ reported.
Hamtramck Police Department Chief Hussein Farhat told WXYZ the incident was random and the suspect and victim didn't know each other: "This suspect could have driven anywhere, saw the opportunity, and took advantage of it."
Hamtramck Police said 48-year-old Donald J. Fields of Detroit was arraigned Thursday.
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Police said Fields was charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual assault, one count of kidnapping, one count of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, one count of felonious assault, and five counts of felony firearm. He also was charged as a habitual offender — third offense, police said.
Fields was taken to the Wayne County Jail and ordered held without bond, police said.
In a separate story, WXYZ reported that Fields is a registered sex offender, and that Judge Alexis Krot — who denied his bond — stated that "despite me saying one minute before that he's a habitual offender, Mr. Fields has the audacity to say he has no criminal history."
WXYZ said Fields previously spent time in prison in connection with a home invasion and assault with intent to commit sexual contact.
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