Two bystanders in Michigan helped a pair of girls escape when a man tried to force them into his car in broad daylight in separate attempted kidnappings, authorities said.
The incidents occurred just an hour apart on Tuesday afternoon, according to authorities. In both cases, a bystander intervened and thwarted the alleged kidnapping attempts.
Endi Bala, 23, first tried to kidnap a 15-year-old girl at around 1:30 p.m. while she was walking along Clinton River Road in Clinton Township, the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
Bala, who is from Shelby County, allegedly grabbed the girl around her head and neck and forced her into his car through the rear driver’s side door, the Clinton Township Police Department said in a separate statement. A bystander who lives in Clinton Township and saw the incident “physically intervened,” according to police.
The bystander, Paul Billeter, said he was doing yard work when he saw a car pull up next to the girl and heard a man ask her if she needed a ride. Then, Billeter said, the man grabbed the girl “like a sack of potatoes” and pulled her to the side of his car.
“I bolted towards the car because something was obviously going wrong,” Billeter said, adding that he then grabbed the man by the neck as he was trying to force the girl into the car.
Billeter’s intervention afforded the girl enough time to escape. Police said she then alerted others nearby who called 911.
The suspect fled the scene in his white sedan, police said.
After reporting the incident to police, Billeter thought that was the end of it, but about 45 minutes later, he said, a police officer returned to tell him that Sterling Heights Police Department officers arrested Bala because he tried to kidnap another girl.
“It never even occurred to me that he would have went down the street and try this again,” Billeter said. He said the idea makes him “sick to my stomach.”
At about 2:30 p.m. in Sterling Heights, Bala allegedly approached a 7-year-old girl near the entrance of Clinton River Park North. Authorities said Bala grabbed the girl off her bike and forced her into his car before attempting to drive away.
The girl’s aunt, Alecia Swejkosk, said she “knew exactly what he was doing” when Bala pulled up to her niece in his car.
She said she immediately began screaming for her niece to run as she watched Bala go around the back of his car and snatch the girl off her bike.
Swejkoski said she and Bala both ran toward the car, where Bala was trying to shove the girl into the passenger side from the driver’s seat. Swejkoski said she “flew” through the driver’s side window and met Bala “in the middle,” where they both “fought for [the girl’s] life.”
Bala then began driving the car back and forth to shake Swejkoski loose and to prevent the girl from escaping, she said.
A driver in another car then blocked Bala’s vehicle so he couldn’t drive away, Swejkoski said, allowing the girl to open a door and run away.
Swejkoski called it “the craziest moment of our lives” and said it happened in “very slow motion, but very fast at the same time.” While it was happening, “every single worst thought ever” was going through Swejkoski’s mind.
Coryne Childers, the girl’s mom, said her daughter is “hanging in there pretty well,” but that “she’ll never be the same.” Childers warned parents to “be aware; don’t let your children go anywhere without eyes on them.”
Bala was charged with kidnapping, reckless driving and assault and battery in the Sterling Heights incident, prosecutors said. In connection with the Clinton Township incident, he was charged with attempted unlawful imprisonment and assault and battery.
He was arraigned on both incidents on Thursday.
An order for a court-appointed attorney was filed Thursday in connection with the Sterling Heights case. A lawyer for Bala in the Clinton Township case did not immediately return a phone call and emailed request for comment Saturday night.
Bala’s bond was set at $2 million cash/surety only in connection with the Clinton Township charges. He was denied bond at the next arraignment, which was in connection with the Sterling Heights incident, and was remanded to the Macomb County Jail.
Bala was ordered by a Clinton Township District Court magistrate to undergo a mental health evaluation, according prosecutors. Court documents show Bala received a petition for hospitalization due to mental illness in April 2023, but the petition was dismissed and he was discharged three days later.
He has a probable cause hearing in the Clinton Township case scheduled for Aug. 27 and and one in the Sterling Heights case scheduled for Aug. 28.