Man charged with attempted child luring in South Jersey: 'I felt his hands touch my shoulder'
PLEASANTVILLE, New Jersey (WPVI) -- Police in Pleasantville, New Jersey have arrested the man they say tried to lure a teenage girl walking to her bus stop Thursday morning.
Action News spoke with the 7th grader who says a man she didn't know started walking towards her on Risley Avenue around 7:30 a.m.
"I already had a bad feeling so I turned around and started walking fast the opposite direction," she said.
She says as she tried to walk back to her house, he got closer.
"The shadows were out, so like as he was walking closer and closer. The shadow kept getting closer and then that's when I felt his hands touch my shoulder, and a different school bus was right there," she said.
Pleasantville police say that bus driver and the aide on the bus saw the incident and stopped to help.
"That's when the lady got off the bus and was like, 'Do you know him?' And I was like, 'No.' And she was like, 'Why are you touching her if you don't know her?' And he was like, 'I didn't touch her,'" recalled the victim.
Police say the suspect left, and the girl got on the bus and notified school officers about what happened.
Police also say the incident was caught on surveillance video but have not released the footage.
Officers later arrested Jamil Boston, 38, of Pleasantville and charged him with attempted child luring, attempted sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
Police say the girl gave a thorough description of the man, which they used as they patrolled the area.
"Very detailed in her description of what he looked like, which played a big part on how we moved forward with the investigation," said Captain Stacey Schlachter of the Pleasantville Police Department.
The girl's mother told Action News she's proud of her daughter and wants parents to talk to their kids about being aware of their surroundings at all times.
Jamil Boston is being held at the Atlantic County Justice Facility pending a detention hearing.
