MANATEE -- A 20-year-old man arrested for trying to kidnap a 7-year-old girl from Pride Park in Bradenton told her and her friends he was going to sexually assault them, an arrest warrant shows.
Kelvin J. Oakley was arrested Sunday, a day after deputies say he approached three girls, ages 7, 9, and 10, as they were playing in Pride Park, 6100 Ninth St. E.
He was charged with attempted kidnapping, a first-degree felony. Oakley is being held at the Manatee County jail on $250,000 bond.
According to his arrest warrant, the three girls were racing around a walking path when one girl accidentally dropped her bracelet on the other side of the park’s fence. She and her sister climbed the fence to get the jewelry.
Once the two girls were outside the park, a man who identified himself as “K.J.” approached them and said he had a secret to share with them at the basketball courts about a block away.
He also told the girls he was going to sexually assault all three of them, the warrant states.
The girls told him he was a stranger and they were not going to the basketball courts with him.
The man then grabbed the 7-year-old by her left wrist and told her “he was no stranger” and that “it was okay for her to go with him,” the warrant states.
When the girl couldn’t free herself from his grasp, her sister helped her and the girls climbed back over the fence.
Oakley then grabbed one of their feet, but the girl got free.
After failing to capture the girls, their assailant told them authorities wouldn’t find him because he has no criminal record.
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