Off-duty Ventura police officer stops kidnapping of a child
Ventura California March 20 2023
An off-duty Ventura police officer called 911 and then intervened after seeing two people struggle over a child in a parking lot Thursday evening.
The incident ultimately led to the arrest of a 56-year-old Ventura woman who allegedly tried to grab the child from a shopping cart, Ventura Police Department officials said.
The officer had been leaving a store around 6 p.m. in a shopping center in the 7800 block of Telegraph Road, near the intersection with Kimball Road, and saw a man and woman struggling over the screaming child, who was about 3 or 4 years old. The man was yelling for the woman to let go of his child as the off-duty officer called 911.
As the adults were struggling, the woman reportedly kicked the man and tried to punch him but instead hit the child, according to the police account. The man shouted he didn’t know the woman and called for help.
The off-duty officer got between the two adults and pushed the woman, who fled. She was later detained by officers and ultimately arrested on suspicion of attempted kidnapping, battery and child endangerment.
The man and his child were treated at the scene for minor injuries. The father told police that as he rolled the shopping cart outside, the woman had approached, grabbed the child with both hands and tried to lift the child from the cart.
The woman remained at the Todd Road Jail facility Saturday with bail set at $110,000, jail records showed.
