Police seek suspect in woman’s abduction

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Police are looking for the man who abducted a 20-year-old woman from a West Side street.

According to police, the North Side woman was waiting to catch the bus in the area of Mahoning and Hartford avenues at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday when a man in a black Pontiac Sunfire circled the block twice looking at her. The woman told police the man got out of the car and forced her into the vehicle the second time he passed her.

The woman told police the man drove for several blocks trying to touch her, but she repeatedly slapped his hand away from her body. The man, she said, parked on Mahoning near downtown, and he began to tell her how pretty she is and continued to try to touch her.

The woman said the man continued to hold her pants leg the entire time the car was stopped.

According to reports, the woman eventually told the man she needed air and leaned out of the car. After several minutes of leaning out of the car, the woman jumped out and ran, leaving her shoe behind.

The woman told police the man attempted to get her back into the car by telling her to come and get her shoe, but she refused, and he left the area.

The man is described as a black male, about 40, wearing gray work pants and a T-shirt. He has a beard, wears sunglasses and was wearing a white, red and black hat.

Police collected the woman’s shirt as evidence because the man had touched the shirt several times without wearing gloves.