Gerardo Posadas: Man arrested for trying to kidnap 5-yr-old girl after offering $150 to BUY her
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: The man who was caught on video trying to kidnap a five-year-old girl in broad daylight in the 5100 block of West Fullerton Avenue on September 8 has now been arrested. Identified as Gerardo Posadas, the 25-year-old is charged with aggravated attempted kidnapping of a child under 13 and aggravated battery in a public place.
As reported earlier, the video shows Posadas walking next to the little girl and her mother, who stop to let him pass, but the man walks back to them and offers the woman $150 for her child. When the mother refuses, Posadas grabs the girl by the hair and pulls her toward him. Fortunately, the girl and her mother were able to escape to safety while Posadas fled the scene. Following this, the Chicago Police Department sought the public's assistance to identify the individual, who was arrested and moved to Cook County Jail on September 12. Posadas is scheduled to appear in court on September 22, as per NY Post.
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The report also suggests that this is not Posadas' first offense and arrest. The Chicago Police Department has arrested Posadas four times before, with the earliest incident dating back to 2014 on charges of defacing property. He was 18 then. After this, in 2017, he was arrested again but on charges of criminal sale or possession of a deadly weapon. His third arrest was in 2020, when he was 23. He was charged with reckless conduct. The fourth arrest happened in 2021 on charges of domestic battery and bodily harm. Though he was not initially identified after the attempted kidnapping, police later published the video, and the mother picked him out in a photo array leading to his arrest.
A similar incident occurred in August when another man tried to kidnap a 9-year-old girl, who was also with her mother, in the 6600 block of North Ridge Boulevard as he "grabbed the victim and started running with her," as per Chicago Tribune. However, the young girl managed to escape with no injuries. The man, identified as Terran McKethan, 20, was arrested and charged with one count of indecent solicitation of a child and one count of aggravated kidnapping, as reported by Fox32Chicago.