Facebook/Oklahoma City Police Department(OKLAHOMA CITY) — Police in Oklahoma City have released surveillance photos showing the moment a stranger picked up an 8-year-old boy at an arena in the state’s fairgrounds.
Police shared the photos on Facebook on Monday in the hopes of identifying and interviewing the man seen in them, who is accused of attempted child abduction by the 8-year-old boy’s father, according to Sgt. Gary Knight, assistant public information officer for the Oklahoma City Police Department.
Knight told ABC News Tuesday that the department has received several tips but has not yet confirmed the suspect’s identity as of Tuesday morning.
The incident happened on Jan. 6, when the 8-year-old boy in the photo had been at a wrestling tournament held at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds, Knight said.
The 8-year-old boy’s father said his son had been standing to the left of the wrestling arena’s main entrance when a man walked behind his son, picked the boy up and “held him onto his hip,” according to a police report obtained by ABC News.
The father said the suspect started “walking towards the main entrance to leave with” his 8-year-old son, but the boy “began kicking and screaming to let him go,” the police report said.
The suspect then “dropped his son onto the ground” and exited the arena, the police report added.
The responding police officer asked the boy’s father if he thought there was “a possibility of confusion” by the suspect who could have mistaken the 8-year-old boy for his own son, according to the police report.
The father responded that he believed the suspect “was trying to kidnap his son,” the police report said.
Knight told ABC News that investigators are looking into “all possibilities, including possibilities that the man seen in the photos could or could not have been trying to abduct the child.”
“What we see in the photos is certainly suspicious, but we certainly want to talk to the person involved and find out more,” Knight said.
The Oklahoma City Police Department wrote on Facebook that anyone with information about the incident or suspect is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 405-235-7300, or to leave a tip online at www.okccrimetips.com. Police added, “You can remain anonymous and may earn [a] cash reward.”
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