‘Momma strength’: Quick-thinking mom prevents kidnappers from getting too far with abducted infant

GARLAND, Texas — A mother whose 20-month-old child was snatched from her arms at a North Texas motel is being credited with ensuring the harrowing incident was short-lived by snagging the license plate off the kidnappers’ vehicle as it sped away.

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“She did the best thing she could have done, and she grabbed the license plate off the front of the car. And I am not quite sure how she got it off… Momma strength,” Lt. Pedro Barineau with the Garland Police Department told CBS DFW.

“It was one of those things … She was going to do everything she (could),” he added.

All three women suspected in the alleged kidnapping are in custody, and investigators stated that they believe the abduction was an isolated, targeted incident in which the trio of suspects knew the victim, according to a post on the department’s official Facebook page.

**Press Release** Arrests Made in Kidnapping of 20-Month-Old Issue Date: October 21, 2021 Release #...

Posted by Garland Police Department on Thursday, October 21, 2021

According to WFAA, the incident occurred at around 12:30 a.m. Oct. 17 at the Express Inn in Garland, and motel surveillance video captured footage of a black Jeep pulling up to the motel and a woman, identified later as 28-year-old Romeisha Brown, exiting the sports utility vehicle.

Brown can be seen in the video making her way to a back door while two other women, since identified as 34-year-old Lashonda Price and 41-year-old Kemberly Suzanne Williams, knocked on the mother’s door, CBS DFW reported.

“When (the mother) opened the door, the three women basically pushed her down and stripped the baby away from her,” Barineau told KTRK.

According to the TV station, the mother ran after the women into the parking lot and managed to rip the paper license plates from the Jeep before running to the motel’s front desk for help.

Authorities were called, and the baby was found within minutes of the abduction being reported after police spotted a black Jeep Renegade on the LBJ Freeway just inside Dallas. Responding officers executed a traffic stop on the Jeep and told CBS DFW that the vehicle was occupied by Price, an 11-year-old juvenile and the kidnapped child.

According to the TV station, Brown surrendered Oct. 20 at the Garland Detention Center, and Williams was arrested the morning of Oct. 21 at a different Garland motel.

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