Six months of self-defense classes paid off Thursday afternoon for a 10-year-old Southern California girl nearly abducted on her way home from school.
Chula Vista Police are looking for the man who attempted to abduct the child as she was walking home from Camarena Elementary.
She left the school's campus on Exploration Falls just before 2 p.m. when a man jumped out of a car on Crossroads Street and tried to pull her inside, police said.
The girl repeatedly struck the suspect and he fell down. She then ran away.
Investigators say the girl was approached where a pathway from the school ends and the little girl's neighborhood begins.
"It's really odd and it's scary," Camarena Elementary mother Armida Solis told NBC 7.
"Be cautious and have the parents always go with the kids everywhere," she advised.
Local
Greg Watkins had planned to let his daughter start walking to school alone.
"That is obviously going to go back to our regular plan now of picking her up right after school," Watkins said. "It shows us that any community is a target and our kids may have a blanket of security that we believe is down here because of where we live. It's just not the reality."
The suspect got into a black 4-door 'smart' car and left the scene. Another man was driving.
The suspect is described as light-skinned, approximately 30 years old, 5-foot, 8-inches tall and 170 pounds.
Family Protection Unit Detectives are investigating.
