'Fight back and kick back'

LAUDERHILL, Fla. (WPLG) – Authorities in Florida are searching for a man who tried to kidnap a 13-year-old girl who was walking home from school in an incident that was caught on camera.

Kymorah Reid, 13, says she was walking home after getting off the school bus along the 5000 block of Northwest 18th Court in Lauderhill on Oct. 7. She heard a man coming behind her, but thought he was just running.

“I moved out of the area because a lot of people jog here,” Kymorah said.

Surveillance footage captured the moments when the man approached the teen, grabbed her and struggled with her.

“Followed me into the grass, then he dragged my leg. He dragged my leg, my foot, to the ground,” Kymorah said. “I was just scared.”

Fortunately, the suspect ran off when Kymorah started screaming, and the 13-year-old was unharmed.

“I yelled at him and said, ‘What are you doing? Get off me,” Kymorah said. “I know most people freeze. They should not freeze at this time. They have to fight back and strike back.”

Investigators are calling the incident an attempted kidnapping.

“She was definitely a brave kid to fight,” said Antonio Gonzalez of the Lauderdale Police Department. “We don’t know if she was being followed (or) if this man was just watching the area, waiting for a potential victim.”

Police described the suspect as a black man in his late teens or early 20s, thin and with short hair. He was wearing a yellow shirt and red shorts and appeared to be alone.

Kymorah’s mother, Lois Kerr, is glad her daughter returned home safely that day.

“When I saw that (the video), everything in me turned upside down. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me and my child,” Kerr said.

Since then, she says she has only reassured Kymorah and hopes the man who attacked her is caught quickly.

‘She’s safe. She’s going to be fine, and I’m not leaving her side,” Kerr said. “He must seek Jesus, and secondly, he must turn himself in.”

Authorities released a flyer Wednesday in hopes someone can provide information that could help track the suspect.