STERLING HEIGHT, Michigan. – Police have released video of the attempted kidnapping of a 7-year-old girl from Riverland Park.

A 23-year-old Shelby Township man faces charges after reportedly attempting to kidnap the girl in broad daylight.

The incident occurred on Tuesday, August 13, just before 2:30 p.m. Police said the girl was in the park with her aunt and cousin when it happened.

A security camera recorded a man getting out of a white car, walking up to the girl, ripping her off her bike and running back to the car. The girl’s aunt then ran to the vehicle and began fighting with the man as he tried to drive away, but another witness intervened and blocked the attempted kidnapper’s vehicle with his truck.

Footage of the incident can be viewed in the video player above.

The witness who intervened, Scott Van-Luven, happened to be a member of the Sterling Heights Police Department’s Citizens On Patrol.

“I pulled him out, pushed him against his vehicle and held him there until the police arrived,” Van-Luven said.

Police Chief Dale Dwojakowski is grateful to the aunt and Van-Luven for preventing the girl’s kidnapping.

“The aunt immediately went into warrior mode,” Dwojakowski said. “The aunt jumps into the passenger side of the car and begins to struggle with the suspect as he attempts to drive the car forward and backward to shake her out of the car.”

Van-Luven has been with Citizens On Patrol for 14 years, but as a father of two daughters, the incident has deeply affected him.

“I’m still trying to process what happened. You don’t see something like this every day,” said Van-Luven. “I just feel for the family. I’m glad I was there to help.”

Police linked the suspect to another attempted kidnapping that occurred an hour earlier in Clinton Township. Authorities said a 15-year-old girl was grabbed on the street around 1:30 p.m. and dragged into the white car. That attempt, too, was thwarted by a good Samaritan. A Clinton Township resident who witnessed the kidnapping physically intervened, allowing the girl to escape and call 911.

The suspect is accused of attempted false imprisonment and assault and is due to appear in court on Thursday, August 15.