Witnesses: Gunman snatches boy from bus stop

[TxGreek]

This is why I'll bring my son to/from school. Our kids aren't safe anywhere! :mad: :mad:


Children say a man with a gun abducted a boy from a bus stop this morning. Sheriff Charlie Wells of Parrish, Florida, said 13-year-old Clay Moore was forced into a red or maroon truck by the kidnapper, who is either a tanned white or Latino man.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/23/amber.alert/index.html

[batrypk]

That is so scary. I hope they find him quickly and he is ok.

[SLance68]

He has been found already.

http://www.wftv.com/news/11093869/detail.html

[freeby4me]

OK I just checked and HE IS OK!

Story Highlights• NEW: Sheriff says boy was found on a ranch or farm; no suspect in custody
• Police say the suspect is described as Hispanic or a white man with a dark tan
• Clay Moore, 13, was forced into the suspect's truck at gunpoint, sheriff says
• Suspect: 5-feet-6 with medium build, reportedly was driving red pickup truck

PARRISH, Florida (CNN) -- A 13-year-old boy who witnesses said was abducted at gunpoint Friday from a school bus stop in Parrish, Florida, is now with deputies, Manatee County Sheriff Charlie Wells said.

Clay Moore was found on a ranch or farm about 20 to 30 miles from the bus stop after he borrowed someone's cell phone to call his mother, the sheriff said.

"It's a heck of a relief," Wells told reporters. (Watch Wells explain how police found the boy )

Clay is doing well and will be reunited with his parents later Friday, he said. Police have no suspect in custody.

Clay has minor scratches, but Wells said he couldn't be sure where those came from.

The suspect -- who police say was described as either Hispanic or a white male "with a dark tan" -- approached the bus stop Friday morning, according to Wells.

Other children at the bus stop told police Clay resisted getting into the suspect's red, early-model, extended-cab pickup truck, Wells said. "Sir, I don't know you," the children recalled Moore telling the man.

"There's no doubt about it," Wells said after the Amber Alert was issued. "He was taken against his will. He was taken at gunpoint. He was forced into that vehicle." (Watch Wells explain how Clay was kidnapped )

Police searched rural areas around Parrish, about 25 miles south of Tampa. Even jail personnel were tapped to participate in the search, Wells said.

The suspect is described as 5-feet-6 with a medium build. Witnesses told police he was wearing blue jeans, a blue-and-tan-striped long-sleeve shirt and sunglasses.

Authorities said they don't believe Clay was specifically targeted. He was a target of opportunity, snatched because he was "the one in the street," Wells said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and FBI are assisting in the investigation

[gmyers]

They updated the story and said he was found. I'm really glad, good news for once.:)

[batrypk]

Oh good, I am glad he was found.

[mosdata1]

Thank God he escaped!!! My children always ask me why I stay at the bus stops with them (13 & 16) yrs old. I pointed out this story and told them "That's why". This happened 30 mins away from us!

[Jolie Rouge]

Pin for torn jacket was teen's salvation
By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 30 minutes ago

BRADENTON, Fla. - Clay Moore's mother and stepfather don't want to think about what might have happened if they hadn't made him repair his ripped school uniform jacket instead of buying him a new one.

A safety pin from the torn jacket's sleeve — and the 13-year-old's composure in frightening conditions — freed him after a gunman kidnapped him, duct-taped his wrists and left him deep in thick woods 20 miles from home, the boy's stepfather said Tuesday.

Clay put the pin in his mouth, picked away at the tape and walked away hours after he was taken. He found a farmworker in a field and called his stepfather, Steve Kelle, from the man's phone, "as calm as if he was calling from a friend's house," Kelle said.

Clay's mother, Traci Kelle, recalled getting the call notifying her that Clay had been snatched as he stood with about a dozen children at a bus stop on Friday.

"I can't put into words how absolutely horrifying it was when we received the news," she said. "But I have to say when I got this phone call (that he was safe), it was the best thing that ever happened in my life."

Clay was abducted at his bus stop in Parrish, 40 miles south of Tampa, by a man authorities believe was 22-year-old Vicente Ignacio Beltran-Moreno. He is wanted on local warrants alleging armed kidnapping and aggravated assault and a federal warrant charging unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Investigators were trying to establish why Clay was targeted, but it appeared that he was selected at random.

Kelle, Clay's stepfather, said the boy told him he was nervously playing with the pin in the kidnapper's truck and put it in his mouth because "he just thought it would be helpful."

The gunman took the arts school student to a remote, wooded area, tied him up, stuck a sock in his mouth and left him.

Clay spit out the sock and the pin, and used a stick and his mouth to retrieve the fastener from the ground, Kelle said. He picked at the duct tape binding his wrists until he could get them loose.

"We are truly proud of Clay," Kelle said, standing next to the diminutive teen at a news conference. "He did an incredible job on his own. He kept his head about him."

Clay didn't speak to reporters and didn't appear too rattled by the dozen or so TV cameras. At one point as his stepfather spoke, the teen sat and held hands with his mother.

Manatee County Sheriff Charlie Wells said his agency is working with the

FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to track down Beltran-Moreno, who became the suspect after investigators took an artist's sketch of Clay's abductor to the migrant worker camps east of Bradenton. Several migrants said it was Beltran-Moreno, a former farmworker who still had many friends in the camps.

The truck suspected of being used in the kidnapping was found outside the home believed to be Beltran-Moreno's, detectives said. They also found a ransom note with threats, though they would not say where it was found or what it demanded.

Wells would not say where they think Beltran-Moreno, a native of Mexico, might be, but said he was "extremely optimistic" he would be caught.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070228/ap_on_re_us/teen_abducted;_ylt=ApQ3thtOb0CaS5ArTTqIeJ6s0NUE

[andreame70]

That is one smart and brave young man. Can you imagine having the forethought to put that safety pin in your mouth, just in case you needed it? I think this young man is one smart cookie and I am so glad that he saved himself from what could have been a very tragic ending.

Andrea