RENTON, Wash. — Renton police are warning parents and their kids who live in the Renton Highlands area to be on high alert after two child-luring incidents happened within a week of each other.
The first incident happened on May 15th around 3:30 p.m. when a student from McKnight Middle School was walking home around Edmonds Avenue Northeast and Northeast 4th Street. The girl said a man in a white Ford sedan started following her and offered her a ride and told her to get in the car. Police said the girl kept walking but the driver kept following her asking if she was sure she didn’t want a ride. The girl went to a friend’s house and began knocking at the door and that’s when police said the suspect drove off.
The second incident happened on May 23rd around 6:00 a.m. when a teenager was walking to the bus stop on Monroe Avenue Northeast. The girl’s mom, Tonya Knox, said it was a scary morning.
“He asked her do you need a ride and she said no so she continued walking but he was behind her,” Knox said. “He gets all the way out and asks her again do you know the entrance to the freeway she said no and he was aggressive.”
Knox said her daughter called her for help and she ran over and walked her daughter to the bus stop.
“I looked back and I said who is this and she said Mom that’s him, that’s him! And I said oh my God and I just called the police and walked her to the bus stop,” Knox said. “All I was thinking is he going to come back—lets you know, 911.”
Now, police are warning people to be on the lookout for a Black man with short black hair. In the first incident, they said he was wearing a Hawaiian-style shirt and in the second, he was wearing a camouflage mask.
If you know anything about these incidents, call the Renton Police Department.
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