Police collared a 26-year-old man Saturday who they believe repeatedly attempted to pick up young girls in the Bronx.
Osita Enweronye was charged with luring a child to commit crime and acting in a manner injurious to a child.
Officers have been looking for Enweronye for several days. They provided no information about how he was located and apprehended.
Enweronye is accused of approaching three different girls in the Baychester area within a 15-minute span on Wednesday morning, police said. He tried to convince each of them to go with him, in one case offering to take the girl shopping, according to police. Two of the girls were 12 years old, and the other was 11.
None of the girls was physically harmed.
On April 8, Enweronye approached a 13-year-old girl as she walked to school just before 8 a.m., police said. The girl told investigators that he said: "I'll take you somewhere nice."
With the permission of her father, the girl told NBC 4 New York on Friday that she feared for her life.
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"My legs were shaking a lot, and I was thinking, ‘This is going to be my last day,’” she said. “’I’m not going to see my friends again, I’m not going to see my mom and dad.’”
The girl said she felt a tug on her jacket as the suspicious character sidled next to her.
“He stopped right next to me and put his shoulder on mine and started saying, ‘Oh, you’re so pretty, can I have your number? You want to come with me? I’ll take you somewhere nice,’” she said.
The girl said she warned the attacker that her father was nearby, inside their house.
She then spotted her friend and screamed her name. That’s when he finally started walking away, toward a bus stop.
The girl told a crossing guard and school security guards, and called her mother, who now walks with her.
“My mom’s been protecting me,” the girl said. “I haven’t been thinking about it. But when I saw his face, I started thinking he was out there still.”
