Crime & Safety
Former Tucker Man Charged With Attempted Kidnapping
Thomas Andrew Woods is in custody after allegedly trying to abduct a 7-year-old girl Wednesday from the toy aisle at a west Georgia Wal-Mart.
A man has been arrested after attempting to kidnap a child Wednesday from a Wal-Mart in west Georgia, according to a report in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
Thomas Andrew Woods, 25, a former Tucker resident now living in Austell, has been charged with attempted kidnapping, and more charges are likely, Bremen Police Chief Keith Pesnell told the AJC. Woods is currently on parole for a voluntary manslaughter conviction in DeKalb County, police said.
The incident was captured on store surveillance cameras and shows a man carrying a child who appears to squirm out of his arms. He then runs away.
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The child, 7-year-old Brittney Baxter, kicked and screamed, said the report, and the man let her go. She was not injured. Her mother, Georgeann Baxter, who was nearby, told Channel 2 Action News: "When she told me someone had tried to get her, I just couldn't believe it."
Woods is being held in the Haralson County Detention Center and will appear before a judge today. He is denying being in the store, but Pesnell said: "We're pretty confident we've got the right guy."
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