King County prosecutors Monday charged a 51-year-old Burien man with luring and second-degree assault for allegedly trying to drag a Federal Way girl into his truck last week.
Esequiel Medina-Vasquez was arrested Thursday night and remains jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail, jail and court records show.
According to the charges:
A 14-year-old girl was walking home from school Wednesday along Southwest 320th Street in Federal Way when she saw a dark pickup drive past her, make a U-turn, and drive past her again, stopping ahead of her at 25th Avenue Southwest. The driver got out of the pickup and approached the girl, gesturing for her to come to him and speaking to her in Spanish, which she didn't understand.
The girl told the man no and crossed 25th Avenue Southwest, walking in front of his pickup. The man then ran up behind the girl, hooked his arm around her neck and began pulling her toward the open passenger door of his truck. The girl was able to break freeand ran home, where she told her parents what had happened. They called 911.
When she was interviewed by police, the girl was described as hysterical and sobbing uncontrollably. She had a red mark on her neck and her necklace was broken during the incident.
Meanwhile, a couple who had witnessed part of the interaction between the man and girl followed the pickup to a grocery store. The man confronted the pickup driver, who admitted he didn't know the girl before he drove off without buying anything. The couple later provided police with a photograph they had snapped of the pickup, which included the vehicle's license-plate number.
Based on the license-plate number, police determined that Medina-Vasquez is the registered owner of the pickup.
Police also obtained video-surveillance footage from the grocery store that showed the confrontation. A detective created a photo montage, and the girl selected Medina-Vasquez's photo from the lineup, the charges say.
Federal court records show Medina-Vasquez, a citizen of Mexico, was deported from Arizona in 2007 and from Chelan County in Eastern Washington in 2014. After he was deported from Washington, King County prosecutors say he was again arrested in 2017 for entering the country illegally, but the charging documents don't say where he was arrested.
