Man attempts to snatch 2-year-old from mother at River Park Square

A man who attempted to snatch a 2-year-old girl away from her mother in River Park Square on Tuesday told police he was stopping her from “running out into traffic,” according to court records.

The girl’s mother said she saw Ronald F. Edwards Jr. as she and her daughter entered the bathroom. She told police that Edwards said they had beautiful smiles, according to court records.

When the two came out of the bathroom, Edwards was waiting. He reached out and grabbed the girl around her waist, but her mother was able to get her away. The incident was witnessed by the mother’s companion, who told police he was keeping an eye on Edwards because he had seen him “making sexually suggestive motions with his tongue” toward a female near the bathroom, court documents state.

The incident was also captured on the mall’s surveillance video. River Park Square is owned by Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

Edwards, 47, has a criminal history that includes a 2016 arrest for lewd conduct, according to court documents. Spokesman-Review stories indicate that detectives requested a manslaughter charge be filed against him in 2011 while he was in the Spokane County Jail after he allegedly provided his prescription drugs to another inmate who used them to commit suicide. No charges were ever filed.

Edwards is being held in the Spokane County Jail on $50,000 bond on a charge of unlawful imprisonment.