Masked Man Who Tried To Steal A Child In Crown Heights Arrested: NYPD

BROOKLYN, NY — The masked man accused of trying to take a 6-year-old child in Crown Heights on Saturday has been arrested and charged, New York City Police Department officials said.

Brooklynite Stephan Stowe, 28, was arrested on Sunday at 1:40 a.m. and charged with attempted kidnapping in the second degree, harassment in the first degree, and acting in a manner injurious to a child under 17 years old, police said.

According to police, on Saturday at around 3:30 p.m., a 45-year-old man was walking on Kingston Avenue between Lefferts Avenue and Empire Boulevard with his two children when a man approached from the front, picked up the 6-year-old boy, and tried to keep walking.

As seen in the footage posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) by the spokesperson of Chabad Lubavitch, the father pushed the man off and prevented the perpetrator from removing the child.

The boy and the father were holding hands the entire time, according to the footage.

“Something is clearly going on in Crown Heights—there have been incident after incident over the past two weeks," Yaacov Behrman tweeted along with the video, which has gotten more than 766,600 views after it was posted on Saturday night.

According to ABC 7 New York, the child's mother said the suspect is the family's neighbor.

The incident is under investigation by the police, NYPD officials said.

This is a developing story and may be updated. For questions and story leads, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.