‘It’s scary’: Maryland man charged with trying to abduct two boys from playground
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Version 0 of 1. Neja Srur, a 39-year-old construction manager in suburban Maryland, was having a normal Sunday evening when two young relatives — clearly upset — came into his apartment. The cause of their distress, according to records filed this week in Montgomery County District Court, was a neighbor now charged with trying to abduct them at a nearby playground. The man had allegedly approached the boys — 8 and 9 — offered them food in his apartment and grabbed their wrists until they were able to get away. “What would have happened if he could have gotten them into his apartment?” Srur said Wednesday. “You don’t know what kind of person he is. It’s scary.” The incident reported shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday occurred at an apartment complex near Columbia Pike in the county’s White Oak section. The suspect, Jemberu Bekele Geda, 37, was being held Wednesday on no-bond status at the Montgomery County jail, according to court records. He was charged with two counts of attempted child abduction and one count of indecent exposure in connection with allegedly exposing himself to a 13-year-old girl, also on Sunday. It is unclear from court records whether Geda has an attorney. According to Srur, the boys had been playing soccer when a 19-year-old relative, who was watching them, left briefly to use a bathroom. Then, a man approached the boys, offered to give them food and drinks in his apartment and grabbed each by their wrists, police say in arrest records. The boys ran away and came to Srur’s apartment. Srur went looking for the man, according to court records, couldn’t find him and called the police. As Srur waited, the 13-year-old girl told him the man was standing on a patio, according to police records. Officers arrived, at which point Srur and the girl pointed to the man. The officers approached Geda and found him “extremely difficult and uncooperative,” they wrote in charging documents. Geda was detained and questioned by detectives. He said he had been on the playground, the police said in filings. “He stated that he saw two children and wanted them ‘to come and play in his apartment,’ ” detectives wrote. According to police, the boys told Geda they did not want to go with him and “were able to free themselves and run away,” police said. The 13-year-old girl said that she saw those events, according to police, and that earlier in the day, Geda had exposed himself as he was looking at her and other children. |