RICHMOND HILL, Queens – A suspect charged with a foiled attempt at kidnapping a 5-year-old boy has now been charged with assaulting an officer in custody, according to police.
Officials say 24-year-old James McGonagle slapped an NYPD official in the face when the officer tried to take his fingerprints. The officer suffered bleeding from his face.
They say the incident happened while he was in custody at Brookdale Hospital.
McGonagle was arrested Friday in connection with the attempted kidnapping of a 5-year-old boy in Queens on Thursday.
The police originally charged him with attempted kidnapping, reckless endangerment and child harm.
UPDATE: A 24-year-old man was arrested and charged with:
– Attempted kidnapping
– Reckless endangerment
– Behavior that harms a child under 17 https://t.co/WXxXyk5JEq
– NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) July 17, 2021
The video, released on Friday, shows a 5-year-old stroll with his mother around 8 p.m. on Hillside Avenue in Richmond Hill when McGonagle got out of a red vehicle, picked the boy up and carried him into the car while the other suspect was in the passenger seat.
CLOCK | Raw video of the incident:
The boy’s mother, Dolores Diaz Lopez, saw it, reached through the open windshield, and dragged her son away from the man and out of the car.
According to sources, officers were in Brookdale Hospital on an unrelated matter when they recognized the suspect from the video.
They say the suspect was in the hospital for treatment and has been taken into custody.
The police are still looking for a second suspect.
Police sources tell Eyewitness News that the older man seen next to McGonagle is his father.
The 5-year-old boy’s mother spoke to Eyewitness News on Friday.
VIDEO | Watch the interview:
Diaz Lopez said she was out with her children to visit her husband at work when a man grabbed her son Jacob.
“I said, ‘Oh my god my kids, oh my god my boy,” said Diaz Lopez.
She said her son sat in the back seat initially, but after she and her children asked to return the boy, he got up and she was able to grab him.
The suspects drove south on Hillside Avenue and then west on Jamaica Avenue.
“I don’t know why this happened. I’ve never seen these people,” said Diaz Lopez.
She explained in Spanish that a mother’s instinct made her fight and act differently.
“You have to do what it takes no matter what,” he said. “The car was just parked there. I never imagined a man would get out of the car and grab my son. You always have to be aware of your surroundings and not be on the phone. “
Jacob played video games on his cell phone Friday afternoon, but Lopez says all three of her children are traumatized and refuse to leave the house.
“Mothers need to be careful with their children,” she said. “Always hold their hand when you go with them, because there are a lot of bad people and you never know who is around.”
The police released pictures of the two suspects.
The child was not injured and the motive remains a mystery.
The vehicle is described as an older, maroon-brown 4-door sedan.
The police are asking anyone with information to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
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