Michigan police officers, students, and a gas station clerk are credited with helping save a 16-year-old girl who was kidnapped at gunpoint on her way to school. Authorities say a stranger forced the girl into his van as she waited for a bus on the morning of April 13, sexually assaulted her, then drove her to a Sunoco station in Detroit, per the Guardian and Detroit Free Press. Clerk Abdulrahman Abohatem told WXYZ that he grew wary when the man told the girl to pay for cigarettes. The teen then silently mouthed "help."
Abohatem stepped out from behind protective glass, put himself between the pair, and ordered the man outside, where police had just arrived. Fellow students who'd seen the kidnapping had tracked the girl's phone and relayed its location to police, per the Guardian. Seeing officers gathered, Abohatem recalled telling them, "That's the guy." Police arrested 48-year-old registered sex offender Donald Fields, now charged with kidnapping, criminal sexual conduct, felonious assault, weapons offenses, and being a habitual offender; he's being held without bond.
The girl is back home with her family. "Despite what she had just gone through, her quick thinking and mental toughness saved her life," said prosecutor Kym Worthy, per the Free Press. Noting that the case "could have ended really badly," Hamtramck's police chief called the actions of Abohatem and the students "heroic," while Hamtramck mayor Adam Alharbi touted "the vigilance of our community." The clerk, celebrated by Detroit's Yemeni-American community, said it simply felt good to "save somebody."
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