The Miami-Dade Police Department said it has arrested the suspect accused of sexually battering a 16-year-old girl who was waiting for the school bus.
The incident happened around 6:30 a.m. on Friday in the area of 142nd Avenue and Southwest 267th Street in Naranja, MDPD officials said.
Investigators said the girl was waiting for her bus when a man forced her – with the threat of a knife – to a nearby field where he sexually battered her. The field is near a construction site and a townhouse complex.
The girl later got on the bus and called her mother, and police were alerted.
The suspect was described as a white male in his 30s. He was later identified as 32-year-old Micheal Canady and arrested.
Canady – identified by police as homeless – faces kidnapping and sexual battery charges.
"This is one of those moments that we can always talk to our children, let them know, again, at 6:30 in the morning, it's still dark outside," detective Argemis Colome said. "Keep your eyes open, if you see anything out of place, anything that looks suspicious, it never hurts to make that call to 911 right away, have one of our officers already on the way."
