Posted on 09/05/2013 7:05:04 AM PDT by tuffydoodle
A woman who was kidnapped and forced into her car by a gunman in downtown Dallas two weeks ago managed to get the attention of two teenagers in a nearby car by mouthing the words, "Help me," according to a dramatic 911 call released Wednesday.
The teens called police, and officers rescued the woman within minutes.
"Yes, I'm on the highway," Aaron Arias first told a Kaufman County Sheriff's Office dispatcher. "I'm witnessing a robbery; not a robbery -- a kidnapping."
Arias, a 19-year-old college student, and Jamal Harris, 17, a Seagoville high school student, noticed the woman in the back seat of her car at a stoplight in Seagoville.
"It's me and another guy, so we're checking out the girl in the backseat because we're like, 'OK, she's kind of attractive,'" Arias said. "And then, all of the sudden, you know, the guy is turned back, looking at us."
The woman looked panicked and was "saying 'Help me' or something, whispering it," he told the 911 operator.
The woman, 25, was kidnapped on Aug. 25 near Bryan Street after she left a downtown office building.
The 911 tape of the incident and a video recording from a sheriff's deputy's dashboard camera were released Wednesday after NBC 5 filed an open records request.
Arias and the other teenager followed the woman's car down U.S. 175 until police caught up with them in Kaufman.
"Oh my God, I'm hoping the car behind me is a police officer," Arias said. "Nope, it's not. Oh my God."
But within seconds, officers arrived and pulled over the car with the woman and the man accused of kidnapping her.
"Thank God. You guys are awesome," Arias said. "Oh my God. Oh my God. Get him! Oh my God."
The suspect, Charles Atkins Lewis Jr., remains in jail on $50,000 bond. He is charged with aggravated kidnapping.
The woman was checked by paramedics but was unhurt.
Arias, a freshman at Texas A&M in Texarkana. ironically got a tattoo of the comic book character Deadpool the day before, he said in a telephone interview.
Arias said he met the woman at the scene after the rescue.
"She hugs us," he remembered. "I would describe it as the best hug I have ever gotten."
He said he hopes to stay in contact with the woman but doesn't want to interfere with the investigation or court case.
Asked whether he considered himself a hero, he said, "She says we saved her life. I guess you could say we did. But I don't want to be that person who says they're a hero."
They were checking her out. Good looks have benefits.
Don’t be so CYNICAL!
Nice to see a happy ending once in a while. I hope those boys continue to do what is right.
Didn’t see any description of the criminal, the victim, or the rescuers. Must have been in the complete article.
Anyway, I was wondering when I saw the title - what does “teens” mean here?
Teens acting in a responsible manner, not identified by race, therefore, most likely white.
Just the opposite skin color of 'troubled teens'.
“so we’re checking out the girl in the backseat because we’re like, ‘OK, she’s kind of attractive,’”
What’s ironic about Deadpool? He is a mercenary who talks a lot. Is that why? Because she talks? Well okay...
Jamal Harris sounds white to you?
You’re reading far too much into the story. Black teens do act responsibly. Yea, the ones who don’t have a media that covers for them but that’s just wrong to assume socially responsible kids are white.
Good looks may have got her saved, but it’s also what likely got her in the situation in the first place. Lucky that she was noticed by the two teenagers, but unlucky that she was noticed by the kidnapper.
White guy named Jamal without a Middle Eastern last name?
There is a video at the linked article. Victim is white, kidnapper is black, the teens doing the rescuing were 1 black and 1 white.
The local news played the 911 tape last night. The heroes are AA teens for sure. Good for them.
Good for those guys.
I think these boys are “guilty” of profiling.
If the perp had been white they may not have thought it was so unusual that a white girl was in the back seat.
But they noticed something didn’t look right, and so they noticed the stressed demeanor of the girl.
Profiling saved her life.
What have they learned about this perp? Chances are this is NOT the first time he did this.
I had to look it up. The boys are being hailed as heroes. Deadpool is described in wiki as an “anti-hero”.
One of the teens who helped the woman is white, and one is black. The victim is white. The kidnapper is black.
Wonderful story.
But it’s a fair question about the looks. Perps like this guy have done harm to all kinds of women. Women in their 90’s, for crying out loud. So it’s fair to ask, if the woman in the back seat had been “unattractive,” i.e., not appealing to these two young men, would she have received more than a fleeting glace, enough to get a message across? Or an old woman, saying “help me?” Hard to say, given how important looks are in our culture.
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