MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Memphis woman is facing kidnapping charges after she says God told her to grab a child.
“You would never think it would happen to you until it really does,” the child’s father Jerome Robinson said.
Robinson told police a woman grabbed his 5-year-old son on Monday while he was walking him to Treadwell Elementary School on Treadwell Street around 8 a.m.
“This woman pulled up and grabbed my son. She asked him, ‘Are you safe? This is not your father come on and go with me. Jesus has a better place for you,” Robinson said.
The father thought quickly on how he could defend his son.
He knocked down the woman, who Memphis police later identified as 53-year-old Gina Ricard, but Robinson says she was letting up.
“We were almost to Treadwell. She still followed me all the way down the street screaming, ‘Jesus! He’s kidnapping my child.’ People were looking at me crazy, but I was with my son,” Robinson said.
He later called his wife who notified the police and filed a report.
As police were searching for Ricard, a nearby fire department called police after a female showed up saying she had been punched.
Ricard explained God told her to help stop a kidnapping.
Robinson’s young son is home safe and understandably shaken.
“He’s scared. He doesn’t want to talk or go to school,” he said.
Police said Ricard matched the description of the attempted kidnapper.
She was arrested and charged with attempted especially aggravated kidnapping.
Robinson says he believes he has seen the suspect’s truck in the neighborhood before.
