Sixth-grader throws rock at stranger who grabbed him while walking from bus stop

Now, Breckenridge Hills Police have pledged to put extra patrol in the neighborhoods near bus stops in the morning, during pick up and at night, during drop off.

The 11-year-old Hoech Middle School sixth-grader was walking from his bus stop near the intersection of Sims and Breckenridge Avenues when a stranger in a green pickup truck approached him, Ritenour School District officials said. The man then asked the boy several times if he needed a ride home. After the boy told the stranger three times he did not need a ride, the man reportedly got out of the truck and grabbed his arm, according to Sgt. Michael Presson, with Breckenridge Hills Police.

"As he pulled back the shirt sleeve ripped and he fell to the ground, the child fell to the ground, and he told me as he was on the ground he saw a rock sitting next to him, so he picked the rock up and through the rock into the subjects face," said Presson.

The boy was able to use this moment to run home and tell his parents, who called police. The boy told police the man got back in his truck and drove off. The boy was not injured.

"He pulled my arm, he pulled my shirt too and he tore it, then I fell and I found a rock and threw it at his face and he kind of went off," said 11-year-old Thaeo Alamea-Zavala.

Kevin Hemp is a dad to a Ritenour School high schooler and lives near the intersection where the attempted abduction happened. "We got a text alert through our phones from the Ritenour District telling us about it. My wife was actually at the student conferences at the high school with our son," said Hemp.

Hemp says he's discouraged to see this happen in the middle of the day, during the busiest time, after the buses drop kids off from school. "I see kids walking by here all the time, when middle school or even grade school get out," said Hemp, "Breckenridge Hills is actually pretty good about patrolling around here. We see them on a daily basis, it's just that can't be everywhere all the time."

The Breckenridge Hills Police Department is working with school officials to investigate the incident. Doug Bray, the spokesperson for the Ritenour School District, released a statement following this incident:

We are glad our student is safe and did the right thing by running home after being approached by the stranger. We encourage our families to remind children to stay safe and alert as they travel to and from school each day. We also encourage parents to work together in their neighborhoods to provide an adult presence at bus stops and to help monitor children as they walk to and from school.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 636-529-8210.