DeLand Man Arrested After Grabbing 5-Year-Old Child At Apartment Building

Date Added: June 28, 2018 10:28 am

Andrew Gant
Office of Public Affairs & Media Relations

DELAND MAN ARRESTED AFTER GRABBING 5-YEAR-OLD CHILD AT APARTMENT BUILDING

A DeLand man is behind bars this morning on charges including attempted kidnapping after he grabbed a 5-year-old boy at an apartment building late last night and tried to walk away with him.

Family members intervened, and the 5-year-old wasn’t injured. The suspect, 26-year-old Aung Pyo (DOB 2/27/1992), was still on scene at 300 S. Spring Garden Ave. when deputies arrived around 11:15 p.m. Wednesday.

The boy’s mother told deputies Pyo approached her son as he walked from their apartment to a picnic table. Pyo grabbed him by the left arm and tried to walk away with him. The boy’s uncle and his mom’s boyfriend stepped in to protect him. The mom said Aung kept saying, “I want your son.”

After a friend took the boy into the apartment building for safety, Aung ran to the door, attempted to get inside and tried to coax the boy out, the family said. The boy’s uncle again pulled Aung away.

The victim’s mother told deputies they have lived at the apartment complex for two years, don’t know Aung and have had no previous contacts with him.

Aung, who appeared to be intoxicated, was charged with attempted kidnapping, child abuse without great bodily harm and burglary of an occupied structure. He was being held without bond Thursday morning at the Volusia County Branch Jail.

The arrest was VCSO’s second attempted kidnapping arrest this week. On Monday, 34-year-old Sarah Freeman of Port Orange was charged with two counts of attempted kidnapping and one count each of aggravated battery on a pregnant victim, burglary of a conveyance and battery after she attempted to abduct two children at Toronita Avenue Beach Park in the Wilbur-by-the-Sea area.