A fearless 11-year-old Bronx girl fought off a stranger who allegedly tried to kidnap her after school, shoving the man away before running to safety. The child, identified as Fatima, later described the terrifying confrontation in an interview with The Post [1].
The encounter happened in Mott Haven around 6 p.m., when it was already dark. Fatima was walking home from school when she accidentally became separated from her older brother and encountered a stranger heading in the opposite direction.
Fatima said the man began speaking to her shortly after they passed each other. His questions quickly made the youngster nervous as she tried to continue on her way.
“I felt very nervous and shocked. I was scared,” Fatima said while recalling the kidnapping attempt. Her fear did not prevent her from resisting when the confrontation became physical.
“As soon as I passed him a little bit, he started asking questions,” Fatima said. “Where did I live, if I was 18.”
Fatima answered that she was not 18 and attempted to walk away. The stranger approached the preteen again and asked her for physical affection that she clearly refused to give.
“He was like, ‘Can I have a hug?’ I was like, ‘No, no, thank you,’” Fatima said. The creep then asked her for another hug, but she did not respond the second time.
The situation immediately turned violent when the man grabbed her. Fatima demonstrated the force of the contact during the interview by gripping her own wrist while explaining what happened.
“I didn’t answer him the second time, so he grabbed me like hard,” she said. Despite the aggressive grip, Fatima managed to pull her hand free and take action.
She “shoved him away and I started running,” Fatima recalled. That quick resistance gave her the chance to escape the stranger and return to her brother.
Fatima’s mother, Fatoumata Jaiteh, offered another account of how her daughter broke away. She said Fatima “was able to pinch him on the hand, get free and run back to her brother and then they went back to the school” after the attack.
Once the siblings returned to the school, the dean called police. Jaiteh emphasized that the man who approached and grabbed her daughter was “a total stranger.”
Surveillance footage captured the would-be abductor, but police were still searching for him. The man remained at large following the frightening encounter.
Attempted kidnapping in Mott Haven South Bronx – man tries to grab 11 year old girl by the wrist ⚠️⚠️⚠️
https://t.co/4AGee4LtP7— ℐ ℴ ℴ ℯ ℯ. (@HoodieGenji) November 6, 2026 [2]
Jaiteh said she was “panicked” when she learned what had happened to her daughter. The incident carried an additional emotional weight because Jaiteh experienced a similar attempted kidnapping when she was in high school.
Fatima also faced the ordeal on her birthday. Her mother said she did not want her daughter to endure the same kind of experience that she had confronted years earlier.
“I know what it got me into, so I didn’t want my daughter to go through that and especially [on] her birthday,” Jaiteh said. The family still managed to mark Fatima’s birthday after she safely returned home.
Despite the terrifying confrontation, Fatima celebrated with cake that night. She also refused to let the encounter keep her away from school the following day.
Jaiteh told her daughter that she could remain home with her for the day, but Fatima chose to return to class. Her decision came after she had already shown the presence of mind to reject the stranger, escape his grip, find her brother, and return to the school.
“She is one of those kids that don’t like to be absent from school. She was going [to] school, even though I told her to stay home with me for the day, she said no,” Jaiteh said.
Fatima’s attacker had not been caught, even though surveillance footage recorded him. Police continued searching for the stranger as the brave 11 year old resumed school after fighting her way out of a harrowing encounter.