TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Girl, 8, Kicks Attacker, Runs Away

ADVERTISEMENT

By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 30, 2007

Updated: 09/30/2007 03:54 pm

SULPHUR SPRINGS - When the man grabbed her by the ponytail on the way home from school Saturday, the 8-year-old girl said, she kicked him in the knee and ran away.

Jamie Bullock said she ran home – about 25 feet away. The man ran in the other direction.

Before he left, though, he warned her he'd be back, she said.

Jamie and her mother aren't sure why the man grabbed her, but investigators think he wanted her Starburst candy, Tampa police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said Saturday.

Whatever the reason, the Sulphur Springs Elementary third-grader said the experience was frightening and that she wants the man caught.

"I was thinking that my life was going to be over," she said. "I thought I wouldn't escape. I thought he was going to rape me or something. … I didn't know what he wanted. If what he wanted was my candy, my mom said he should've asked."

If caught, the man likely will face a battery charge, Davis said Saturday.

Serina Evans, Jamie's mother, said she considers the Sulphur Springs neighborhood safe and didn't worry about her daughter walking the mile or so home from school late Saturday morning.

Now, she doesn't know.

Jamie said the man that grabbed her had been pushing a shopping cart and had just finished searching inside a trash can. She said he was white, with a white beard and a mole on the side of his face, near his ear.

He wore a red and black cap and T-shirt that was light blue and yellow, she said.

She told her mother he was about 5-foot-7 and between 60 and 70.

"I don't know what the guy was trying to do," Evans said. "I don't know if he was hungry and just wanted to eat food, but that wasn't the way to go about it."

Information from News Channel 8 was used in this report. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7691.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT