Surveillance video released Thursday shows the frightening moment a 9-year-old girl thought two teens were trying to abduct her in her own neighborhood.
“There’s nothing you can do. As a father you want to protect your children. I can only imagine what she felt,” said her father, Jim Giles.
“You see her cut through these bushes because these teens start coming toward her,” said Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco.
Nocco said in the video 18-year-old Drew Bretnall and his 16-year-old friend are chasing the girl.
And Bretnall is using his cell phone to record it all.
They posted the video on Snapchat and are heard laughing in it.
“Regardless of what the Pasco County Sheriff finds out, it’s still an act of terror and there needs to be repercussions because of it,” said Giles.
The teens said they weren’t trying to kidnap the child, so what were they doing? According to the Sheriff’s Office they said they were recreating a scene out of Japanese anime.
“We’ve got 18 year olds that are leaving off to college. 18 year olds starting their careers. 18 year olds sacrificing their lives going overseas to defend our liberty and what America stands of. And we got this moron standing out their creating a Japanese anime, whatever it’s called, because he thinks, that’s what gets his kicks off,” said Nocco.
The Sheriff said they are working with the State Attorney’s office and hope to charge
the teens with misdemeanor assault.
Meanwhile, they’ll continue extra patrols in the child’s neighborhood.
“She’s still a little scared. She doesn’t want to sleep alone at night. She doesn’t want to go out by herself,” said Giles.
Her father said, an older sister normally walks home with the girl, but because of a time change this week at River Ridge Middle School, that didn’t happen.
