Miami 6-year-old says she fought off would-be kidnapper by biting him

Six-year-old Ah’Lyric Fornairs and her siblings were playing “duck, duck, goose” last week when a man driving a white car stopped near them.

They didn’t think much of it. They finished the game, and Ah’Lyric sat on the stairs of her Miami apartment building while her siblings ran inside to get drinks. Suddenly, the man was beside her, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her off the stairs, she said.

As Ah’Lyric screamed, struggling to break free from his grasp, she remembered something her mother had taught her.

“She said any time somebody tries to get me, just bite him,” Ah’Lyric said.

So she bit down hard on the man’s arm. He dropped her, she said, and ran back to the car, quickly driving away. Two days later, police arrested Leonardo Venegas, 32, on charges of kidnapping and child abuse without great bodily harm. Officials praised the 6-year-old’s bravery and quick thinking to escape what they described as a potential abduction.

“Teach your kids to do this,” said Michael Vega, a Miami Police Department spokesman. “She’s our hero.”

For years, Ah’Lyric’s mother, Teshia McGill, has told her four children what to do if strangers approach them.

“Every other day, you see Amber Alert, Amber Alert, Amber Alert,” said McGill, 31. “So, I try to teach my kids to defend themselves even when I’m not around.”

A spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office, which is representing Venegas, on Wednesday said the office had no comment. Venegas pleaded not guilty on Monday.

McGill’s children were playing outside in the common space of their apartment on the evening of July 6. Her wife was home, watching the kids from the apartment, McGill said.

As Ah’Lyric waited outside while the others went in to fetch drinks, surveillance video showed a man running up to the stairs and grabbing Ah’Lyric, Vega said.

As he grabbed her, Ah’Lyric held onto the railing, but the man tore her away and pulled her over his shoulder, according to Vega. She screamed and kicked.

“Then, I bit him,” Ah’Lyric said. “Then he slapped me and threw me.”

Afterward, the man ran off and drove away, according to an arrest affidavit.

Ah’Lyric ran inside to tell her family what had happened. They called Miami police, who arrived at the apartment to speak with her. Investigators showed Ah’Lyric surveillance footage, and she identified the man who had tried to kidnap her, according to the affidavit.

McGill, who was at work, raced home after her wife called her about the incident. She immediately hugged Ah’Lyric, she said, asking her daughter to tell the story over and over, making sure she had heard it correctly.

Ah’Lyric repeated the same details each time she recalled the incident, McGill said.

She said she was relieved her daughter had remembered the lessons she had taught each of her children: Don’t talk to strangers. When you’re in danger, scream. Fight back. Do whatever you can.

“I felt terrified,” she added. “ … What if he would have took my child, and I came home and my child wasn’t there?”

Police later tracked the man’s white Range Rover using CCTV footage and its license plate number, according to the affidavit. Officers located the vehicle two days later and arrested Venegas, who was inside the Range Rover.

Since the incident, McGill said Ah’Lyric has been sleeping in her bed every night. And each night, she has told her daughter the same two things.

“That I love her,” McGill said, “and I ain’t going to ever let nothing happen to her.”