MIAMI – Officers arrested a man who attempted to kidnap a woman in Miami’s Coral Way neighborhood nearly four months to the day of the crime, police said Monday.
Police arrested Camilo Andres Pedraza, 34, in Miami Beach Friday, four months and one day after the attempted abduction, according to an arrest report.
It was a second attempt that landed him in jail, according to police.
According to police, on the night of Nov. 2, the woman was walking home from a shopping trip at a Coral Gables Ross store when, as she walked near Southwest 22nd Avenue and 24th Street, a man ran up from behind, squatted down, grabbed her by the waist, and tried to pick her up.
The woman screamed, which prompted a neighbor to come out of his home to see what was going on, and the man, later identified as Pedraza, dropped her onto the ground and ran off, police said.
Police identified a black Toyota Corolla in nearby surveillance footage that belonged to the suspect, the report states.
On Wednesday, a Miami Beach police detective contacted Miami police to report a case in which Pedraza was identified as a suspect.
Police said the suspect’s M.O. was identical in both cases: in Miami Beach, Pedraza is accused of running up behind a woman, grabbing her, groping her, then running away after bystanders were alerted to the panicked victim.
The report doesn’t state where on Miami Beach that incident took place. But Miami Beach is where officers caught Pedraza Friday, near the intersection of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
He faces one count of attempted kidnapping in the Miami case. Jail records show he’s also being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on another attempted kidnapping charge, plus charges of sexual battery and stalking.
The Colombian national remained in custody on an immigration hold as of Monday, records show.