What led to a West Virginia woman, Santana Renee Adams filing a false abduction report singling out a Middle Eastern man as the alleged perpetrator?
A West Virginia woman has been charged with filing a false report after telling cops that she used a gun to stop a man from abducting her daughter.
Santana Renee Adams, 24, filed a report on Monday that while shopping at the Huntington Mall, a man of ‘Middle-Eastern’ descent grabbed her 5-year-old daughter by the hair in an attempt to kidnap her. According to the mom the ‘foreign’ man fled once she pulled out a gun.
Mohamed Fathy Hussein Zayan, a man who fit Adams’ description, was shortly arrested at the mall’s food court. Zayan, a 54-year-old engineer from Egypt, was visiting the area for work.
Fortunately for Zayan, Adams’ story soon began to crumble. No witnesses told of having seen the so-called intense attack, while security footage didn’t corroborate the mother’s claims. Upon being questioned, Adams began to change her story.
WATCH | Santana Renee Adams is taken into the Cabell County Courthouse where she was arraigned Friday afternoon. She is charged with falsely reporting an emergency after she said a man tried to abduct her child at the Huntington Mall.
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Mohamed Fathy Hussein Zayan Middle East man vindicated:
Come Friday, Adams turned herself in. Her bail was set at $20,000. If convicted, Adams faces up to six months in jail and a $500 fine. It was not immediately apparent why she made up the false abduction and how she came to denote the alleged abductor as a Middle East individual.
All the charges against Zayan were dropped. Upon his release from jail, he cried in relief and hugged family members.
‘Unfortunately, as false accusations are becoming more prevalent in today’s social media driven society, we are losing our grasp on ‘presumed innocent until proven guilty,’ and Mr. Zayan has been tried around the world by the court of public opinion,’ said Zayan’s public defender attorney, Michelle Protzman, in a statement.
