A member of a college track team has been arrested and accused of kidnapping a three-year-old boy and stabbing the child’s mother with a screwdriver, a report says.
Myrajah Deshjonae Rankin, a member of the track team at the San Antonio-based Catholic university, the University of the Incarnate Word, was arrested and booked in the Bexar County Jail on Thursday and charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, Fox News reported.
The 19-year-old freshman is a sprinter on the school track team, Fox added.
MyRajah Deshjonae Rankin. Bexar County Sheriff’s Office
A San Antonio Police Department report says that the woman approached the child at around 2 p.m. outside an apartment complex in San Antonio on Feb. 16. When the child’s mother moved to intervene, the situation turned violent.
The police report adds that when the child’s mother told the student to go away, Rankin began screaming and then stabbed the mother twice in the arm with a screwdriver. Rankin also allegedly tried to pull the boy away from his mother.
Eventually, Rankin is said to have grabbed the boy and run off carrying him. She was reportedly stopped by witnesses who caught up to her when she was stopped by a chain-link fence through which she was trying to push the boy.
The report says that a bystander pulled the boy from the student’s arms, and the woman fled.
Security cameras caught Rankin pushing her way into a nearby apartment to hide. The occupants began screaming at her to get out, and the police were again called by the apartment dwellers. The resident told police that Rankin took several crosses and a pair of scissors, then crawled inside one of the apartment’s closets.
Officers soon arrived, guns drawn, and took Rankin into custody.
In a statement, the college said it is “aware of an off-campus incident involving student-athlete Myrajah Rankin” but has no further comment at this time.
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