A Texas mother was forced to put a kitchen knife to the throat of a man who was allegedly threatening to kidnap her 2-year-old daughter, and some of the incident was caught on a neighbor’s security camera.
The shocking incident unfolded on Monday evening after Paige Ortiz and her husband came home with their daughter from shopping for a television at Walmart.
Ortiz said that she told her husband someone was following him in a blue truck similar to theirs but that he was dismissive of her suspicion.
“By the time we made it to our neighborhood, that’s when I told my husband, like, ‘Hey, this man’s following us. Like, this isn’t OK,’” Ortiz recalled to the Star-Telegram. “And my husband told me that I was just overreacting, it’s no big deal.”
She said that she began taking the groceries into the house, and the man started talking to her husband about his truck.
Then she watched as the man grabbed her daughter.
“I immediately dialed 911,” she said. “I had the knife in my hand, and I was running as the phone was ringing.”
Ortiz said the man told her husband that he was not the father of the child and tried to run off with her.
While her husband struggled with the man, Ortiz said she held the knife to his throat and threatened to kill him unless he released her daughter. She said he was yelling that the child wasn’t her daughter.
Her husband was eventually able to pull their daughter away from the man, and he sped off in his truck.
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office identified the man as 62-year-old Steven Bayse, and when they tried to pull him over, he reportedly led them on a chase and eventually hit three patrol cars and almost struck a deputy.
Bayse was arrested and charged with kidnapping, evading arrest or detention with a vehicle, and aggravated assault against a public servant. His bond was set at $125,000.
The man had previously been arrested for allegedly stealing mail and had been placed on the Enhanced Mental Health Services Docket because of that charge.
Ortiz said that some people questioned her decision against killing the man.
“People, I think, are also questioning why I didn’t kill him,” she said. “But I only had a certain amount of strength left, and I had to make the choice to either pull her from his arms and get her to safety or end his life, and I chose to get her to safety.”
She added that her daughter seems fine and doesn’t appear to remember the incident.
“She sleeps well at night. She acts normally. She’s still, you know, as rambunctious and full of attitude as ever,” Ortiz said. “She hasn’t changed.”
Here’s the video of the harrowing incident:
Texas mother fights off man who tried to kidnap her 2-year-old daughterwww.youtube.com
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