A group of quick-thinking students stopped a man from kidnapping a child standing at a school bus stop in Maryland on Monday, police said.
A child was waiting at a bus stop in the 17600 block of Towne Crest Drive in Gaithersburg at 7:20 a.m. when Jamaal Germany, 30, of Gaithersburg, “allegedly grabbed the child and pulled them toward an apartment building,” Montgomery County Police said in a news release.
Several students who were also standing at the bus stop “attempted to intervene and the victim was able to break free,” police said.
When the school bus arrived, all the students were able to board, and they reported the incident to staff members at Redland Middle School.
Detectives identified Germany as a suspect, and he was arrested and accused of attempted kidnapping.
He remained in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility on Tuesday morning, according to booking records. It was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.
Police are asking anyone who believes they may have been a victim of Germany to contact police.
A neighbor who is the parent of a high school student and declined to be identified told NBC Washington that the apparent kidnapping attempt has happened before.
“Apparently he was at the bus stop last week doing the same thing,” the parent said.
Montgomery County Public Schools said the district has asked for police presence at the bus stop.
The principals of Redland Middle School and nearby Judith A. Resnik Elementary School and Col. Zadok Magruder High School alerted parents about the incident in a letter, writing that the victim was unharmed.
The letter said Montgomery County schools and county police would increase security at the bus stop. “We are sharing this information with all three school communities given that the bus stop where the incident occurred is used by students from these schools,” the letter said.
“Knowing that this may have been alarming for some of our students, we are providing social emotional support to all of the students who were at the bus stop and may have witnessed this,” the letter said.