Good Samaritans help thwart attempted kidnapping along SF’s Embarcadero
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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — There’s been an attempted kidnapping along The Embarcadero and San Francisco police say no arrests have been made.
The incident happened last Friday around 6 p.m. along The Embarcadero near Townsend. Good Samaritans came to the rescue of a grandmother and her 2-year-old granddaughter.
“It wasn’t until she, the attacker, was starting to scream obscenities and really vulgar information about this baby that things felt like they took a turn,” said Alyssa Zionc.
Alyssa Zionc is describing what happened when she watched a woman begin screaming at, then attacking a grandmother and her granddaughter. Forcing the grandmother to do all she could to protect the child.
“She was like, throwing her whole body protecting this baby. Like the baby was in front of her, she kept her shoulder to the attacker so she was getting hits from the attacker like the push, pull and yes, the attacker had hands on that baby. The attacker was screaming, ‘That’s not your baby, this is my baby! Don’t take her,’ and then forcibly hitting her,” said Zionc.
Police tell us they did respond to the area, but not where it happened at Embarcadero and Townsend – they responded more than 800 feet away at Embarcadero and Brannan.
That was at 5:55 p.m. Officers say they couldn’t find a victim and less than 10 minutes later at 6:04 p.m., a report of gunshots fired at a parking control officer at 8th and Brannan came in. All units responded to that.
“I gave the exact location between Brannan and Townsend along The Embarcadero and that there’s an active attempted kidnapping happening,” said Zionc.
“No response?” asked ABC7 News reporter J.R. Stone.
“No response,” replied Zionc.
Alyssa says the grandmother was going car to car, knocking on windows of vehicles in traffic trying to get help. Alyssa, her husband, and a random Uber driver were the only ones to step in and help.
“So the three of us – my husband, the gentleman in the Uber, and myself – we assisted with getting the attacker away, who took off down the street. Then we got the grandmother and baby safe, calm, and ready to return home,” said Zionc.
Police say no arrests have been made. Alyssa does remember certain things about the attacker.
“I would say she’s early to mid-30s, full buzz cut, about 5’3,” 5’4,” maybe 80-100 pounds wearing full gray, gray tank top, gray sweat pants, black backpack. She had just the hollowed out sunken look for her features, then just those bright red chap lips. My husband and I have seen her throughout our neighborhood before.”
As for the child, family members tell me they’re hopeful this won’t have any long-term effects on her. Physically, she is okay but has been waking up crying at night since this happened.
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