GIRL: ‘I DIDN’T WANT TO BE ONE OF THOSE CASES’
Inspired by woman who fought off John Gardner, she grabbed the knife
By Debbi Baker
The San Diego Union-Tribune
May 20, 2010
Guadalupe Perez, an eighth grader at National City Middle School, was walking home from school and was in front of the walkway to her home when the man came up behind her and grabbed her.
"This guy came out of nowhere and jumped on me," Guadalupe said.
He held a knife to her throat and grabbed her left wrist and pulled it behind her back.
"He kept repeating in a low voice, ‘Get in the car or I will cut you,’" the girl said. She thought he was going to hurt her or worse.
She screamed, reached for the knife, slicing her finger in the process and then hit him with her elbow and ran as blood gushed from her finger.
"I didn’t want to be one of those cases where you find my remains three years from now," Guadalupe said.
She said the man then calmly walked to his car as if nothing happened.
She worried he was going to try to run over her. But when she turned to look back, he was gone.
Leonard Scroggins, 33, is being held without bail in San Diego County jail and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on charges of attempted kidnapping, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and felony evasion for the attempted abduction Wednesday.
The teen said she knew about the case of John Gardner, the convicted sex offender who murdered North County teenagers Amber Dubois and Chelsea King. One thing that stuck in Guadalupe’s mind was the testimony of Candice Moncayo, a jogger who elbowed Gardner in the nose and got away when he attacked her as she was jogging.
The girl said that inspired her to do what she did.
"If I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t be here today," she said.
Guadalupe said she tries not to think about what might have happened if she had been kidnapped but it has crossed her mind. She said she would have felt bad that her parents and sister and cousins would have been left worrying and wondering where she was.
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