JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A suspect accused in an attempted kidnapping is behind bars after police said he tried to take off with a young boy. Police said Michael Novellino went into a Dollar General on the Eastside and claimed he was looking for his son.
The boy’s mother, Octavia Jackson, said her son was nearly taken from her.
“Anything could’ve happened, anything could have went wrong,” she said.
Police said her son Alijah ran into the store asking for help in a panic and following him was Novellino.
“He was scared, he was scared,” she said.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
Jackson said she knew something was wrong as soon as she saw him.
“As I was walking up to the store, I saw him ride his bike across the street without looking to see if a car was coming and he was breathing fast. I asked why he would do that, and he said, ‘There’s a guy up there. He tried to take me,’” she said. “What my son told me is that he tried to make him put his bike inside his car, and they went in the store and was like, ‘Come on son let’s get ice cream.’ And the lady was like, ‘That’s not your son, he comes in here in everyday.’”
The clerk knows the little boy because they’re regulars there, and knew it wasn’t the suspect’s son, so she called the police and told him to leave.
“I appreciate her because she’s the one who told Alijah to stay in the store and she called police,” she said.
A police report said the boy told officers Novellino tried to grab him and put him in the car. The suspect told police the boy asked for money, but he didn’t have any. So, he said he’d buy the boy ice cream when his friends showed up. The suspect denied entering the store looking for his son, but police said video showed otherwise.
Jackson is stressing the importance of stranger danger to other parents.
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
“Let your kids know if anyone approaches them don’t matter who it is, don’t go with nobody don’t take nothing from nobody, don’t ask for nothing from nobody, and don’t go anywhere by yourself,” she said.
The suspect told police his car had broken down and he went inside for ice. Police also learned that car was stolen and suspect said he got it from a drug dealer who gets cars for free.
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.