NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Police have arrested one man and are searching for a second man in connection with a brazen attempted kidnapping that happened Thursday evening in Queens.
Police arrested one suspect on Friday. They said James McGonagle, a 24-year-old from Queens, was charged with attempted kidnapping, reckless endangerment and acting in a manner injurious to a child less than 17.
The NYPD continued to search for a second suspect on Saturday. Police described him as a light-skinned male, 50 to 60 years old, with eyeglasses. He was last seen wearing an orange shirt, blue jeans and black shoes.
Police said a 5-year-old boy was walking with his mother and at least two other children on Hillside Avenue in Richmond Hill around 8 p.m. when a man jumped out of the driver's seat of an older model maroon car, ran over and snatched the child up.
The suspect ran back to the car, carrying the child under his arm, and put the boy in the back seat as the mother and two other children desperately try to get him back.
Surveillance video shows one of the children trying to grab the boy out of the backseat before the driver shuts the door and climbs back behind the wheel.
The mother and children can then be seen reaching into the car through the passenger side window, where another man was sitting. They managed to pull the boy out before the vehicle drove off.
Three bystanders were seen trying to stop the car, which fled southbound on Hillside Avenue and then westbound on Jamaica Avenue.
The boy was not hurt.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly confidential.