Comment The 6-year-old was bending over as she was picking up boxes to throw away outside her home in Hamilton, Ohio, when a man approached her from behind and touched her private parts, surveillance video recorded last week shows. Confused by the incident, the girl took a few steps towards the front door of the house before the stranger grabbed her by the left arm and dragged her in the opposite direction. But the girl’s cries prevented the man from taking her further. Seconds later, the man let go of the girl’s wrist and sped away from the scene, the video shows. Deric N. McPherson, 33, has since been charged with two counts of kidnapping, one count of aggravated sexual assault and two counts of unlawful restraint, according to Butler County court records. In 2014, McPherson was charged with rape, court records show. A grand jury dismissed the case. On the evening of Aug. 23, the girl’s mother was leaving groceries in the kitchen and agreed to let her child throw some boxes into the blue trash can in front of her home, she told the Washington Post. The Post is not identifying the parents because the incident involves a minor. “The trash can is literally 1st feet [away] from my front door…” he told The Post. “It can happen in the blink of an eye.” About a minute after she went outside, the girl returned home screaming for help, her mother said. “Someone touched me!” ,” her daughter recalled crying. “Someone tried to take me!” “ The girl’s parents initially chased the man on foot before the father jumped into his car and followed McPherson down the side streets, the mother told The Post. With the 911 on the line, he finally cornered McPherson in an empty lot. The Hamilton Police Department arrested McPherson a few minutes after 6 p.m., according to the arrest report. If the girl’s parents hadn’t sat down with her to discuss ‘unknown danger’, as the girl’s mum put it – where she was told that ‘if anyone ever tries to touch you or pick you up, scream, bite, kick [and] make as much noise as possible” — she doesn’t think her daughter would be safe at home today. McPherson is being held in the Butler County Jail on $35,000 bond, records show. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
