A female student at a Texas college who is also a track athlete was arrested after stabbing a mother with a screwdriver and taking off with the woman’s three-year-old son while he was playing outside.
Nineteen-year-old Myrajah Deshjonae Rankin, a Round Rock, Texas resident, has been held at the Bexar County jail since Thursday, February 23, after being charged with aggravated assault using a deadly weapon and aggravated kidnapping.
The nineteen-year-old is reportedly a student at the University of the Incarnate Word, a Catholic school in San Antonio. Rankin is also a member of the university’s track and field team.
According to the police, Rankin approached the toddler at around 2 pm on Thursday while playing outside an apartment complex where he and his mother live.
The boy’s 28-year-old mother noticed Rankin, a stranger, approaching her son and immediately jumped into action. She told the track athlete to get away from the boy, but Rankin continued to approach him.
Court documents state that the two women both grabbed the three-year-old boy simultaneously.
Rankin, who had a screwdriver, allegedly stabbed the boy’s mother several times in her forearm, prompting the mom to loosen her grip on the boy. Rankin saw her opportunity and started running with the toddler.
The attacker tried to squeeze the boy through a gap in a metal fence, but a witness caught up with her.
A man who had noticed the incident ran up to Rankin and ripped the child away from her, according to the San Antonio Police Department. The boy’s mother told officers that she did not know Rankin and had never seen her before.
Rankin fled into a nearby house, where she found a woman, her daughter, and mother-in-law, who called the police. The suspect reportedly took a pair of scissors from the kitchen and hid in a closet in the home until police apprehended her.
The University of the Incarnate Word released a statement about the incident confirming that Rankin was a student there. The college declined to comment on the incident, saying it was an ongoing investigation.
