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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man was charged Thursday with grabbing a 12-year-old girl as she was walking home.
Mason Musser, 29, is charged in 3rd District Court with attempted child kidnapping, a first-degree felony.
On July 19, a 12-year-old girl and her 14-year-old friend had just gotten off a TRAX train to walk home in the area of 700 East near the I-80 overpass, when Musser grabbed the 12-year-old's wrist, according to charging documents.
"(The girl) stated that it was really dark, and the bushes began moving. Musser then jumped from the bushes and grabbed (her) wrist while saying, 'Come over here' and making sexual comments," the charges state.
The 14-year-old girl reacted by punching Musser in the face and telling her friend "that they were going to need to run as fast as they could across the street." The girls waved down a vehicle for help, and were driven to a nearby gas station where they called their moms, court documents state.
Police searched the area, located Musser and arrested him. Prosecutors have requested that he be held in the Salt Lake County Jail without the possibility of posting bail pending trial.
