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Police: Girl escapes abductor

A knife-wielding man grabs the girl on her way home from a store. She breaks free as police swarm in.

By KEVIN GRAHAM
Published March 15, 2005

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10 year old Tampa girl back home after kidnapping

TAMPA - A 10-year-old girl managed to get away from a knife-wielding abductor Monday night, Tampa police said.

The girl's mother had sent her to a neighborhood store just north of Ybor City about 8 p.m. to pick up something for dinner, said Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy.

When the girl was about 15 minutes overdue, the mother called police, McElroy said.

The girl had gone to Bud's Meat Market on 22nd Street, just north of 15th Avenue. On her way home, she told police, a man holding a knife grabbed her and said, "You'd better go with me, or I'm going to kill you," McElroy said.

Police saturated the area with officers. McElroy said the alleged abductor, Terrance L. Brown, 43, no known address, became frightened.

"The police presence rattled the suspect, and (the girl) literally ran out of her shoes," McElroy said.

The girl ran past a police officer on her way home. She gave police a description of the man. Officers saw someone nearby who matched the girl's description and drove her to his location, where she identified him.

"This is a best-case scenario, if you can have such a thing with an abduction," McElroy said.

Brown was taken to the Orient Road jail and charged with aggravated kidnapping of a child under 13, aggravated false imprisonment of a child under 13 and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

McElroy said the abductor had talked to the girl about sexually assaulting her, but she appeared to have gotten away before he could assault her.

Jail records show that Brown has been arrested before in Hillsborough County.

[Last modified March 15, 2005, 01:06:08]