Date: 6/8/2019
Time: 1200 hours
The Marietta Police Department is currently investigating an attempted child abduction that occurred at the Walmart (210 Cobb Parkway South). The incident occurred inside Walmart in the bathroom area. Marietta Detectives have learned that the suspect, 51-year-old Michael Beltran of Marietta, approached a 9-year-old child and attempted to lure him away by telling the child that his mother had left him at the store and that he needed to go with him. After Beltran was unable to verbally lure the child away, he grabbed him by the arm. The child was able to break free from Beltran and flee to where his mother was in the store.
After learning of the incident, the child’s mother immediately called 911. Cobb 911 received the call at 12:00 PM, dispatched the call to police at 12:01 PM, and the first officer arrived on scene and met with the mother at 12:04 PM. Police were able to quickly locate Beltran (still inside the store) and immediately placed him in custody.
The Marietta Police Department would like to remind the public that although extremely rare, these types of incidents can occur. In 2018, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) assisted law enforcement with more than 25,000 cases of missing children. Of those cases, less than 1 percent were from non-family abductions as this attempt was. Locally, going back more than five years, the city of Marietta hasn’t had a single child abduction.
In this particular case the child had been educated by his parent on what to do if/when approached by a stranger. Furthermore, the child was able to provide a detailed description of the suspect to his mother. As a result, Marietta officers were able to quickly locate and arrest the offender before he could attempt this crime again.
The Marietta Police Department would like to remind everyone to always stay vigilant. We also encourage parents to educate their children themselves or have them take one of the many certified child self-defense classes (such as RADkids) which are designed to thwart off attacks/abductions.
Beltran has been charged with the following offenses: Simple Battery (M); Kidnapping (F). He is currently being held without bond at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center. If anyone recognizes Beltran and might have had similar encounters with him, please contact Marietta Police Detective Mark Erion at 770-794-5363.
PIO Officer J. Rakestraw
