An Iowa mother kept two alleged potential kidnappers from grabbing her son earlier in January when she fended them off with her handgun.
Housing manager Shay Lindberg was working at the Hubbell Tower Apartments in Des Moines on Jan. 5 when she noticed two people pacing in front of her office located along the city’s Skywalk. Concerned, Lindberg opened the door with her son beside her and asked if she could help the couple, KDSM Fox 17 reported.
It was then that Michael Ernest Ross, 43, and Laurie Lynn Potter, 57, allegedly attempted to grab her son, prompting Lindberg to produce her handgun.
Iowa gun-toting mother stops duo from kidnapping her son: reports https://t.co/r9BEHlJVoZ pic.twitter.com/yPJzVHPJJT
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“It certainly looks like the big turning point here, the pivotal piece to keeping her child safe was the fact that she was lawfully-armed with a handgun, and she produced it and told them ‘let go of my kid.’” Sergeant Paul Parizek of the Des Moines Police Department told the outlet. (RELATED: 12-Year Old Girl Escapes Kidnapping By Chewing Through Restraints, Leads Police To Two Dead Bodies)
Ross and Potter retreated but Lindberg called Skywalk security guard Will Hunter and provided him with a description of the two alleged would-be kidnappers. “It took Shay about three sentences to describe (her) and I’m like ‘that’s Laurie’ she’s been around, hanging around,” Hunter told the outlet.
Hunter noted that while everyone is welcome in the public space that is the Skywalk, there is a homeless shelter nearby that brings with it more security risks. “We do have the shelter down here and you have a lot of mental illness in the homeless community” he told KDSM. “And that’s just a sad fact.”
Hunter reported the incident to police and followed the couple until city law enforcement could take over.
“To have that security guard there in that spot at that moment was probably the most critical piece to this because he was able to keep an eye on both of these people as they made their way through the skywalk, down to a restaurant and onto a bus,” Parizek told the outlet.