Family warns parents to be vigilant after woman tries to take boy from Asheville park

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — An Asheville couple was terrified during a visit to Pack Square Park when a woman tried to grab their baby.

The couple, who asked to remain anonymous, said on Friday, Aug, 9, they took their 1-year-old son to the splash pad.

“Then a woman walked up to me and said something about holding my baby, and she got right up next to me,” the boy's father said.

Then, he said, almost immediately ”She started to grab my son out of my hand.”

"At that point, I yelled, ‘This is my baby,’ and I was still holding onto him, and started to pull him away,” he said.

Asheville police identified the suspect as Shannon Adams.

The father said things quickly escalated.

“I tripped as I was pulling him out of her hands, and, at one point, I was above her, pulling my son up and she was stabbing me in the stomach with a cane,” he said.

That’s when he said his wife stepped in to help.

“(My wife) got on top of the woman and pulled her fingers open to get her to finally let go of my son,” the father said.

Adams was arrested for two counts of simple assault, and the next day an additional charge of assault on a child under 12 was added.

The Asheville Police Department made a post on Facebook saying, the “magistrate did not find enough elements to support a charge of kidnapping.”

The father said he is thankful his son wasn’t seriously injured.

“Just some big fingernail scratches, but could've been worse,” he said.

Now, the couple is warning other parents to keep a close eye on their children downtown.

“At the time this happened, he couldn't have been any safer,” the father said of the 1-year-old boy. “We were at a kids' event, around a bunch of other kids, it was daylight, and he was in my arms."

The couple said they haven’t had any luck getting Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams to charge Adams with attempted kidnapping.

"As in any case, when charges are filed, it is inappropriate to make comment about pending matters," Williams said in a statement . "However, also in any case, the district attorney’s office will review facts and circumstances as they are developed by investigators to ensure that any additional appropriate charges are filed.”