This story --which I'll say from the outset has a happy ending-- is every parent's nightmare. A call comes. It's your son who's in trouble: He's surrounded by scary strangers. Just as he calls for help, the line goes dead.
The event took place in the Ledroit Park neighborhood on Friday, September 25; it starts as the mother, Saleemah, receives a frantic call from her 9th grader. Here is what Saleemah posted on the Ward One listserv:
[Friday] night around 10pm I got a phone call from my son (just entering 9th grade) who should have been home from his first high school football game at 9:30pm, saying "Mom, these guys are surrounding me and they are acting funny--oh my god" Then the phone hangs up before he tells me where he is! I'm thinking he could be dying in some alley some where. I rush out, jump in my car and literally fly all over the locations of where he might be, screaming his name at the top of my lungs, frantic as hell! Meanwhile I'm calling MPD giving them all types of locations. Finally, a good samaritan on 6th and Eckington called me, flushed his face...My son got maced. Apparently, they wanted his sneakers.
Long story short, he's safe, and I want to truly thank all the concerned police officers, particularly one who escorted me through heavy traffic to get to my son, whom I've totally disrespected in a fit of rage. I also want to thank the family/group that lives at the location where I found my son. Crime is out of control. Nonetheless, the only way I can repay my community is to continue to do the best I can in raising my son to be an upstanding citizen, as cliche as it may sound.
Happy to see the child is safe. I'd go ballistic if this happened to me.
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