‘She was terrified’ - Hero councillor says abducted child wore fear all over her face

A few minutes after leaving the cops, Scean Barnswell noticed a young child being pulled along the roadway by a man. Something did not sit right with him.

"It was her uniform, and even more the fear on her face," Barnswell recalled. "The fear drew my attention. Passing them, she didn't look like a happy child. She looked distraught, distressed and that helped me confirm, 'Yes man, that is the child'," he told THE STAR. Barnswell, who is the councillor for the Hayes division of the Clarendon Municipal Corporation, was referring to a six-year-old child who was reported missing on Tuesday afternoon.

Barnswell said he spun the vehicle around as soon as it was safe to do so and sprang into action.

"By this time, he was a little further away, so I drove up and slowly rolled down the window and said, 'Aye sah, aye sah.' He didn't respond.

He was trying to get away, so I drove up and blocked his path and told him, 'Don't run enuh,' and approached him aggressively."

Barnswell then questioned the man, "Where you get the people dem pickney from?"

He said the man replied that his cousin had sent him for the child.

But the story, according to Barnswell, wasn't adding up, and so he demanded that the man release the child.

"Mi seh, 'Give me the people dem pickney,' and the child came and held on to my foot," he said.

"The place he walked with the child, you can see he put her through a vegetated area. She had shrubs on her uniform, and the same for his clothes, but some scratch marks, maybe from tree branches. Listen, you could see she was terrified."

The councillor said that he then asked his wife to secure the child in their vehicle while he phoned the police to notify them of the situation.

While commending the quick reporting and police response, Barnswell believes more can be done for missing child alerts.

"Once it is reported missing, the alert should be blaring all over the place so everyone is on the lookout," Barnswell said.

As for fear, Barnswell said he felt none while confronting the man. He said the reality of the situation shook him afterwards.

"When I reached home, is when everything lick me. My body start feel all type of way you know, goose bumps that was all over," he said.

"I kept thinking, What if that was my daughter? What would I do? What would I say to her mother? I wouldn't want to live that situation or be that parent," he said.