Man accused of kidnapping 4-year-old, trying to force girl's mother into prostitution
A 27-year-old Seattle man is in custody accused of kidnapping a 4-year-old Federal Way girl in an attempt to coerce the girl's mother into prostitution.
Around 3 a.m. yesterday, the 25-year-old woman got off a bus with her daughter at South 272nd Street and Pacific Highway South in Federal Way, said King County Sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart. The woman's ex-boyfriend pulled up in a car next to them, grabbed the girl, and told the woman she would never see her daughter again if she too didn't get into his car.
The man drove to SeaTac, where he told the woman to get out of the car and start "working," Urquhart said. She refused and he allegedly punched her in the mouth, splitting her lip. He demanded she deliver "money by noon" and then drove away.
The woman went to Valley Medical Center in Renton and received six stitches, Urquhart said. Someone she met at the hospital drove her back to SeaTac, where she called 911 at 8:20 a.m., he said. Based on information the woman gave investigators, sheriff's deputies arrested the man at his cousin's apartment at South 176th Street and 32nd Avenue South, Urquhart said. The little girl was not hurt.
The man was booked into the Regional Justice Center in Kent on suspicion of kidnapping, extortion and assault, jail records show. A convicted sex offender, the man is also being held for having contact with a minor and for failing to abide by the conditions of his release on a robbery charge, according to jail records.