A quick-thinking 12-year-old girl escaped her would-be abductor after he dragged her to the back of an abandoned home in Allapattah.
The frightening incident happened as the girl was walking home from school in the area of on Northwest 11th Avenue and 32nd Street around 4:30 p.m. on November 14.
"The place where I was, was the back of everyone's houses so no one could really hear me," said the child, who identified herself as "Nene."
"He's asking me questions, how old am I, and do I smoke and stuff," Nene said.
Nene said the Hispanic man, who is approximately 23 to 25 years old, put his arm around her mouth and dragged her to the backyard of the house where no one could hear her.
"As he was on top of me, I kicked him in the groin," she said.
The child was determined to save herself. Though the man pushed her down again, Nene says she kept fighting back.
"That's when I started to punch him and stuff," she said.
Once free, she even thought to run to a neighbor's home so he wouldn't know where she lived.
"She was able to fight, she's a tough little girl," her proud mom Shawanna said. She is grateful her daughter has been listening to her advice all along.
"In case something happens, you fight. Don't let them take you to another area because we may not find you," Shawanna said she told her children. "Keep talking, parents, keep talking. They hear you."
Miami Police said the man was carrying a tiger-striped bookbag, perhaps in an effort to try and pass himself off as a student.
"What his intentions are we don't know. We think that possibly he wanted to rape her or harm her in some way," said Sergeant Freddie Cruz with the Miami Police Department.
"That's the scary part, he could look like anybody. We don't know where he came from. We don't know if he's in the neighborhood. We don't know if he saw her at the train station," Shawanna said.
What this family is sure of, is that the person responsible needs to be caught before he tries to hurt another child.
Wednesday morning, Miami Police will be distributing flyers with a sketch of the man in order to make the public aware. If you have any information that can help call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
More NBC 6 South Florida Stories:
