Ferguson, MO (KSDK)- Police say a Ferguson man tried to kidnap his neighbor's 8 year old son. Now 27 year old Jedidiah Burks is charged with kidnapping and second degree assault.
Henry Richardson's son was kidnapped on Friday night around 7. He says he cannot stop thinking about the chain of events.
He says his neighbor was always cordial to him so he never expected Burks to do anything like this.
"I was standing here and I heard my son talking to somebody while I was working on the car and then a second or two later I heard him saying 'papi, papi,'" said Richardson. When he walked around the car he saw something unusual. His 8 year old son was in Burks' arms. Burks and Richardson both live in the 21 hundred block of Vitadale Court, in fact their backyards touch.
Richardson says he kept asking Burks what he was doing but, Burks kept ignoring him. Finally, Burks responded. "He said 'Jesus has just saved your blood line.' It sounded like he was trying to cut my blood line by killing my son," said Richardson.
He says when Burks took off with his son in his car he grabbed the car's passenger side window and was hanging on to it.
"It looked like he was trying to run the car directly into this tree and I had fell off somewhere out here in the street and rolled up into the middle of this neighbors yard," said Richardson.
He says he immediately got up and ran to get his car so that he could chase after Burks. But, not before asking his next door neighbor, Al Shead, to call police.
Shead says he never expected this from Burks.
"He never did anything like that before so I don't know what made him snap like that," said Shead.
"During the whole fiasco I was thinking 'what in the world is happening, I cannot believe what is going on,'" said Richardson.
Richardson says his son was able to get out of Burks car just a few blocks from his home near the intersection of Ottkamp and Elkins Drive and police say they spotted Burks just a few feet away at Minneford and Elkins Drive. That's when he was taken into custody.
"I am so glad we taught our children over the years what to do in emergency situations and I'm so proud that he listened because you see and hear so many stories that go the other way and the kids never come back or they are molested. I didn't have to deal with any of that," said Richardson.
He says he learned the importance of always monitoring your children even in your own front yard.
Police say they're still trying to figure out why Burks did this.
Burks is being held at the St. Louis County Jail on $75,000 cash only bond.
KSDK