Sheriff's Department investigating attempted kidnapping at Itawamba Attendance Center
Feb. 9—The Itawamba County Sheriff's Department is investigating an alleged assault and attempted kidnapping in Fulton on Monday.
The incident occurred Monday evening on the campus Itawamba Attendance Center, involving an unknown assailant and at least two children whose names have been withheld in the interest of privacy.
According to the incident report, the alleged assailant emerged from the woods behind the school, approached one of the children and attempted to abduct the child. The child fought back against the assailant, elbowing the suspect in the mouth before the other child came to the first child's aid. The assailant then retreated back into the woods. The children escaped the incident unharmed.
Itawamba County sheriff Chris Dickinson told The Times that no suspect has yet been identified in the incident, but the department is pursuing all possibly leads to find the alleged assailant. Dickinson confirmed that the children involved did not know the assailant.
"There's no M.O. that we know of, other than someone wanting to abduct a child. For whatever reason, they wanted to do it," Dickinson said. "Regardless of what reasoning someone had ... it's extremely dangerous, and something we take very serious."
Dickinson is hopeful that the victim's hoodie could yield DNA evidence where the child elbowed the assailant in the mouth. A nearby agency also provided a tip on a vehicle possibly driven by the assailant.
"Everybody that lives in that neighborhood, all the vehicles, we vetted all that," he said. "We are now down to DNA, hopefully, and the photo lineup that we're working on. That's pretty much where we are with it. There's not a whole lot more that we can do at the moment unless somebody saw somebody."
With the alleged assailant's motivations and origins currently unclear, Dickinson is asking for anyone with any information on the incident to call the Itawamba County Sheriff's Department at 662-862-3401.
"Even though the child is fine, I would hate to know that I didn't do my due diligence to (investigate) this attempt, and then something happen," Dickinson said. "It's just as important as if it did happen, that (the child) was kidnapped, because if that person made the attempt, he's gonna do it again if he hasn't already."
