BELLEVUE, Wash. — “Looking back on it, I’m happy that I reacted that way as quickly as I did,” said a man who rushed to help a girl, the victim of an attempted kidnapping in Bellevue last Friday.
The man, named Tony, wished to remain anonymous, saying he was driving home from work when he saw the attempted kidnapping of a 16-year-old girl in the Lake Hills neighborhood, near the QFC along SE 16th Street.
“I see on the sidewalk, there’s a guy basically on top of her back, trying to grab her around the shoulders and she flings him around a little bit, drops him and he rolls off her shoulders. He turned and ran into the bushes,” he said. “I was able to just flip a U-turn, pull right up and my first question, ‘was that guy just attacking you?’ – and she’s like, ‘yes.’”
The Bellevue Police Department released surveillance photos of the suspect, saying he attacked the girl shortly after they got off at the same bus stop.
“I think the biggest thing – I couldn’t tell if she was making noise, but the fact that she was struggling and putting up as much of a fight as she could, was absolutely the right thing to be doing,” said the witness.
Tony said he and another woman stayed with the girl, until police and her parents arrived.
“She was in shock, very quiet. Once her parents got there, she got a little more emotional.”
30-year-old Marvin Lopez Perez was arrested after police got a tip Monday morning that someone who matched the suspect description got on a bus in the same area.
Officers took Perez into custody when he got off the bus a few stops later.
The suspect waived his right to appear at a first appearance hearing Tuesday.
His bail was set at $100,000.
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