‘Watch your babies,’ mother warns after she says man tries to abduct her child at RiverScape

DAYTON — A Dayton woman is warning all parents after she says her 3-year-old daughter was grabbed in an apparent attempted abduction in Dayton.

Five Rivers MetroParks Rangers were on patrol at RiverScape MetroPark around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday when they were alerted to an incident near the bikeway, according to Chief Mark Hess, Five Rivers MetroParks Public Safety.

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Brittney Jenkins told News Center 7 that was where her daughter, Nylah Dickerson, was with two of her adult friends when a strange man tried to grab her.

“Comes up and grabs underneath her arms and picks her up,” Brittney Jenkins said.

She said her friend, Brandon, and his girlfriend stopped the attempted abduction, despite the man making threatening comments to them.

“My daughter kind of fell and he said, ‘It’s either your life or her life,’ ” Jenkins said.

Hess told News Center 7 that Jenkins’ friend, Brandon, pushed the man away but followed them briefly until he was shoved again.

“This is about the time the Rangers arrived and detained the suspect,” Hess said in a statement.

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That suspect was later identified as Christopher McMahon, 32, of Dayton. He has been booked into the Montgomery County Jail on suspicion of child enticement, trespassing and disorderly conduct.

Jenkins is still shaking over what might have happened and said her daughter woke up crying through the night.

“ ‘The man, the man with the hair like this, he tried to take me, mommy!’ ” Jenkins recalled her daughter saying.

Jenkins said she had to get the warning out.

“Hold your babies, watch your babies. They will do it right in front of you,” she said.

The incident remains under investigation, Hess said.

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