Georgia Mother Uses Gas Pump to Defend Child from Attempted Kidnapping at Marietta Gas Station

A quick-thinking Georgia mother used a gas pump to defend her child during a frightening encounter with a man police say attempted to kidnap him. The incident happened just after midnight last week at a Shell gas station on Delk Road in Marietta, WSB-TV reports. Surveillance video obtained by the outlet shows the suspect, identified by police as Jerahn Tucker, approaching the family’s vehicle at a gas pump before walking away and later returning. The woman told police that Tucker had a gun, according to a warrant obtained by Fox 5 Atlanta. The video footage shows Tucker, who was not wearing a shirt or shoes, looking inside the vehicle and appearing to notice a child. The child then opened the car door and ran around the vehicle as Tucker appeared to follow them. At one point, Tucker opened the back door where the mother’s second child was sitting. The video shows the mother stepping between Tucker and her child, grabbing a gas pump and using it to push him away. Her fast action gave her child enough time to get back inside the vehicle safely. Two witnesses at the gas station also rushed in to help the mother during the confrontation. Marietta Police Department Public Information Officer Charles McPhilamy praised the mother’s collectiveness during the encounter. “The actions of the mother and everyone on the scene, their ability to remain calm under pressure and push him away, get him away from the children, get a hold of us so that we can get to the area allowed us to hold this individual accountable,” McPhilamy told WSB-TV. After Tucker fled in his vehicle, Cobb County police assisted Marietta officers in locating him. Authorities said they found him shortly afterward, along with a THC vape inside his vehicle. Tucker was arrested and faces charges of attempted kidnapping, simple assault and possession of a THC vape. He is being held in the Cobb County Jail. “The million-dollar question everyone watching is going to ask: Why did this happen? Why did this occur? And we don’t know those answers,” McPhilamy said. The gas station manager told WSB-TV that Tucker had previously been removed from the property multiple times.