A determined Toronto mother refused to let go when a man grabbed her son by the head and wrestled him away.
The five-year-old boy had just been picked up by his mother from Jr. Kindergarten at St. Simon Catholic School near Weston Road and Hwy. 401. Suddenly, the man grabbed the little boy around the head and wrestled him from his mother's grip, threatening to kill him.
Frantically, she managed to free her son and get him to safety.
"Everything's okay, everything's fine," the mother said as she led her son into a police station. She added that they were shaken by the experience.
School principal Flora Cifelli and another teacher followed the boy's assailant down the street until police arrived.
"I just asked him ... very casually, 'where are you going,'" Cifelli said. "It's very scary. It's scary as a school administrator, it's scary as a mother, it's scary for anybody."
Other parents at the school could not believe what had happened.
"Just shocked that this would happen here because it's a very good school," one mother said.
A 52-year-old man was arrested and taken to the 31 Division police station. He was charged with assault and threatening death.
Police have not been able to confirm the identity of the suspect. They are expected to ask the courts for a psychiatric examination of the suspect.
The young boy was not hurt in the incident.
With a report from CTV's Jim Junkin
