Metro Atlanta / State News
9:56 a.m. Thursday, February 9, 2012
Suspect in attempted Wal-Mart kidnapping on probation for manslaughter
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The man charged with trying to kidnap a 7-year-old girl Wednesday
from a west Georgia Wal-Mart was on probation at the time after serving
a sentence for a voluntary manslaughter conviction in DeKalb County, according to police.
"We're pretty confident we've got the right guy," Pesnell said.
But as Woods was being led in handcuffs from the police department to a patrol car, he told reporters that the police had the wrong man.
"I was never there," Woods said.
According to police, Woods started talking to Brittney Baxter in the toy aisle of the Wal-Mart and then grabbed her and put his hand around her mouth.
But Brittney kicked and screamed, and the man let her go, police said. Neither she nor her mother, who was nearby in the store, was injured.
"When she told me someone had tried to get her, I just couldn't believe it," Brittney's mother, Georgeann Baxter, told Channel 2 Action News.
Store surveillance cameras captured the incident, and based on the description of the suspect's vehicle, police located Woods a few miles away in Tallapoosa, Pesnell said.
Woods was charged with attempted kidnapping, and additional charges are likely, Pesnell said. The suspect was being held in the Haralson County Jail. GBI agents are assisting with the investigation.
Woods was released in October from the Wheeler Correctional Facility, where he had been since April 2007 following his manslaughter conviction in DeKalb, according to the state Department of Corrections. He was placed on probation after serving out his sentence.
According to DeKalb County jail records, Woods, previously of Tucker, was arrested in October 2004, three months after the crime for which he was convicted. He was 17 years old at the time.
The Bremen police chief praised Brittney's actions.
"She did exactly what we teach the little ones to do at a time like that," Pesnell told Channel 2.
