As a 6-year-old girl sat on her apartment building's rear steps in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood after playing outside in the complex's courtyard with her siblings Thursday night, Leonardo Venegas drove up and allegedly grabbed her. She fought him and pulled away, but he managed to start carrying her off, police say. Then, in her words: "I bit him," the little girl, whose name was given only as Lyric, tells Local 10. Police say the bite on Venegas' arm caused him to drop her; he then slapped her, police say, before fleeing.
The girl ran to tell her aunt what had happened, and Venegas, 32, was arrested Saturday on kidnapping and child abuse charges, NBC 6 reports. "She fought for her safety, which ultimately saved her from a potentially very dangerous situation," a Miami Police Department spokesperson says. "We're thankful that she did enough to save her life." As for how she knew what to do, Lyric says her mother taught her how to protect herself, and the girl's mother concurs: "You have to teach your kids not to speak to strangers and protect themselves even when you're not around," she says. "I'm glad she knew how to fight back." (More Miami stories.)
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