Robby Wildt: Hero cops rescue kidnapped girl, 6, just 30 minutes after abduction
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: Body camera footage showed the moment police officers saved a six-year-old girl from an alleged kidnapper's car. The child was playing outside her family's home in Valley Station, Kentucky, at around 5.40 PM on July 2, when the incident took place. Police have not yet released the identity of the child.
According to the Louisville Police Department, Robby Wildt, 40, spotted the youngster, pulled up in his red Dodge Charger, grabbed the child, and drove away. The girl's neighbor Prentiss Weatherford witnessed the whole thing. In a similar incident, four-year-old, Cash Gernon was kidnapped and murdered on May 15. The suspect in the case, 18-year-old Darriynn Brown was seen on Alvarado's CCTV footage. Brown is charged with capital murder in the case.
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Talking to WAVE3 about the incident, the neighbor Weatherford said, "It happened quick. He came around the corner, parked his car, got out within 15 seconds." Weatherford claimed that the suspect grabbed the girl when she was on her bicycle in the 4700 block of Haney Way, threw her in the front passenger seat of his car and drove off quickly. The witness and his father then jumped in their car, followed the suspect and noted down the last three digits of his license plate. Weatherford came across a police officer during the pursuit and handed him the suspect's license plate number.
According to reports by WMUR, with the help of the license plate numbers, Louisville police Sgt Joe Keeling and Officer Jason Burba found the suspect's car, a red Dodge parked in a driveway, saved the child, and arrested the suspect. Video from Burba's body camera captured the moment he approached the suspects' car with his gun drawn and yelled, "Open the passenger door!" Burba then opened the front passenger door and found the sobbing barefoot girl inside. He was heard consoling the kid by saying, "Hello, it's OK. Come here." The child was screaming throughout the sobs, "I want my daddy!"
Another body camera footage shows Wildt getting out of the car with his hands raised. The 40-year-old suspect was then placed in handcuffs and sent to to jail. LMPD officials said in a statement, "Fortunately the entire incident only lasted about 30 minutes due to the quick actions of the community and LMPD."
According to an arrest citation reported by WDRB, Wildt allegedly told police he saw the girl playing outside, and "took her from the side of the road". According to Wildt's testimony, he tried to console the girl as she cried "before deciding he knew what he was doing was wrong". He then told the police he began to drive the victim back home because he was "afraid he may hurt her". Wildt also allegedly said that "he felt bad for doing what he had done". Robby Wildt was charged with one count of kidnapping a minor and his bond is set at one million dollars.