Mom stabbed by college athlete trying to run off with her 3-year-old, Texas cops say
A college athlete tried to run off with a woman’s 3-year-old son, even stabbing the woman with a screwdriver as they tussled over the boy, Texas police said.
The mother told San Antonio police that her son was playing outside their apartment complex on the city’s northeast side when she noticed a young woman she didn’t know approaching him, according to a release from the department. It was around 2 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 16.
That woman was later identified as 19-year-old Myrajah Rankin, a track and field athlete at the University of the Incarnate Word, a Catholic university in San Antonio.
“The University of the Incarnate Word is aware of an off-campus incident involving student-athlete Myrajah Rankin,” the college said in an emailed statement. “As this is an ongoing San Antonio Police Department Investigation, the University will have no further comment at this time.”
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Rankin grabbed the boy as his mother stepped outside and tried to run away with him in her arms, police said. The mom reached for her son but Rankin stabbed her in the arm with a screwdriver, ripped him out of her grasp and kept running.
“I started screaming, yelling, crying,” the woman told KHOU. The commotion caught the attention of others at the complex who stepped in to help, she told the TV station.
Rankin’s escape was blocked by a metal fence, KHOU reported, and she was trying to squeeze the boy through a gap when witnesses caught up with her.
A nearby worker wrestled the boy away from Rankin, police said in a release. She then ran into a neighboring apartment and was found hiding in a closet by SAPD officers.
The neighbor spoke to TV station KENS and said he wasn’t home at the time, but his wife was, and he watched as it happened through a security camera installed inside the unit.
The man’s wife yelled at Rankin to leave as she grabbed several crosses and a pair of scissors from the kitchen before hunkering down in a closet, the station reported.
She was taken into custody “without incident” on charges of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, police said.
An investigation is underway.
This story was originally published February 20, 2023 at 9:07 AM with the headline "Mom stabbed by college athlete trying to run off with her 3-year-old, Texas cops say."