An elementary school principal is being called a hero after he helped apprehend a man who impersonated a parent at the school’s open house in a plan to drug and kidnap a 5-year-old child.
St. Brigid School principal Terry Adkins told WHIO-TV he called the police after noticing a suspicious man at the school’s open house event on Monday in Xenia, Ohio.
“I need police. I have a trespasser. I have a gentleman here that has trespassed into our school open house, asking questions and claiming to be the parent of a daughter. And he is not,” said Adkins to the 911 dispatcher.
“So I need a police officer to investigate and inquire,” he added. “He’s posing a threat.”
Adkins told the dispatcher that the man was asking about a girl that was supposedly his daughter but didn’t know her correct name.
“And now the parent who he was questioning about that daughter is getting irate, and I don’t blame him,” Atkins said on the call.
The dispatcher told Atkins to separate the parent and the man in order to keep the incident peaceful before police arrived.
Police identified the suspect as Reid Duran, 35, of Fairborn. When they took him to the police station, he allegedly tried to stab an officer with a pen in order to escape. The officer was able to subdue him.
Police said Duran confessed that he had planned to drug a 5-year-old girl with a tranquilizer-laced Starburst and kidnap her in order to sexually molest her. Investigators said that Duran told them he was involved in another similar incident at another school.
Xenia Sgt. Lon Etchison commended the principal for his quick thinking.
“The principal was very quick, as my understanding, in recognizing that there was an issue and addressing it. So I absolutely think that he could have prevented very bad from happening,” Etchison told WHIO.
Duran is facing charges of attempted kidnapping, felony escape, and felonious assault related to his alleged attempt to stab an officer. He was held without bond.
Here’s a local news video about the incident:
Police: Man impersonates parent at Xenia school, planned to abduct child | WHIO-TV
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