CLEVELAND – An 11-year-old Cleveland girl is being called a hero for taking quick action to save her 6-year-old brother from an attempted abduction.
Julianne and Hayden Moore were playing outside their home Thursday night when they were approached by a man.
“He started to talk to us, but we really couldn’t figure out what he was saying. It was like gibberish so we really didn’t think much of it,” Julianne told WJW.
She said the man started to walk away but circled back around. That’s when he suddenly grabbed her little brother by the hand and started pulling him away.
“When he tried to grab my brother, I knew like this was serious. This was not like any handshake or anything,” the 11-year-old said. “I just grabbed my brother and went into the backyard because there was no time to panic. You just have to go with it.”
“My daughter came running back there with my son, dragging him by the arm and screaming. I said, ‘Julianne, what’s wrong?’ She said a man tried to abduct Hayden,” their father Joshua Moore said.
The father said he ran to the front yard and spotted the man walking down the street.
“I said, ‘Excuse me, did you touch my child?’ And he just threw his arms out like this and continued walking. At that point, I came back, my daughter was crying and upset, and we called police,” Moore said.
The Cleveland Division of Police located the man on Mayview Avenue and arrested him, based on Julianne’s detailed description.
Pedro Luyando, 33, of Cleveland, was charged with abduction.
Julianne said she acted on lessons taught by her parents to always look out for her younger brother and try to stay calm. She is shaken by what happened in their front yard.
“My heart dropped because I know that I saved my brother. He would not be here right now,” she said.