PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The mother of a woman reportedly abducted from a Philadelphia street said seeing a widely circulated surveillance video of the attack is devastating.
Authorities on Tuesday increased a reward to $15,000 for information leading to an arrest in Carlesha Freeland-Gaither’s disappearance Sunday night.
Her parents circulated fliers in the Germantown neighborhood where she lived and was last seen, Facebook groups sprung up with prayers for her safe return and police planned a news conference Tuesday with detectives and her family.
The black-and-white video shows the 22-year-old Freeland-Gaither flailing in vain as a man rushes her along a sidewalk to a parked car.
“It’s devastating to watch that video. You see him pull up. He’s so calm,” Keisha Gaither told the Philadelphia Daily News. “I see him dragging my daughter. I see him hitting my daughter. You can see the way it looks like he was setting her up, it looks like something that was planned.”
Police said a witness reported seeing a woman yelling for help as she was forced into a dark gray four-door vehicle at about 9:40 p.m. Sunday. Freeland-Gaither’s glasses and cellphone were dropped on the street, police said.
The witness said Freeland-Gaither — described by her parents as easy going until she’s threatened — broke the car’s rear side windows before the vehicle sped off.
“I can tell you one thing, she’s a fighter. She was not just giving up. She wasn’t just going to be taken,” Gaither told the newspaper. “She’s going to keep fighting to the end. She’s coming back to me.”
Mayor Michael Nutter approved a $10,000 city reward Monday for information on Freeland-Gaither’s disappearance. John McNesby, the President of the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, said Tuesday the union would offer an additional $5,000 reward.
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Information from: The Philadelphia Daily News, https://www.phillydailynews.com/
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