SAN ANTONIO โ A track and field athlete with the University of the Incarnate Word is accused of kidnapping a 3-year-old child and stabbing his mother with a screwdriver in northeast San Antonio Thursday afternoon.
Police say 19-year-old MyRajah Rankin, a Round Rock native, stabbed the young mother as she tried to get her son back. Rankin allegedly then carried him away until a nearby man "heard the commotion" and was able to grab the child from Rankin, at which point she ran and hid inside an apartment closet.
Officers eventually arrived and took her into custody on charges of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. According to San Antonio Police Department officials, the mother said she didn't know Rankin.
"I heard screaming, really loud screaming like terror," said one neighbor at the Villa Rodriguez apartments.
Omar Ortega, another resident at Villa Rodriguez, says it was his apartment unit Rankin eventually ran into. "She wanted to do an exorcism or something (with the young boy). She wasn't well in the head."
While he wasn't home at the time, Ortega tells KENS 5 that he watched it all unfold in real-time through a security camera set up in his living room. He says Rankin snuck in through a sliding door.
"My wife's like, 'What are you doing here? This isn't your apartment! Leave!' Then she (Rankin) said, 'Shhh!'"
Ortega says Rankin stole crosses from their kitchen, along with a pair of scissors before hiding in the closet. His wife, niece and mother-in-law called 911 before running outside.
UIW officials confirmed to KENS 5 that Rankin is a freshman student-athlete with the university, but her status with the team is unknown. The school provided no additional statement, citing the ongoing police investigation.
Rankin is jailed on $150,000 in total bonds and is scheduled to make an initial court appearance on Feb. 28.
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