Lakewood girl clawed at would-be kidnapper, tore his shirt and ran home shoeless

"Get in the car,'' the stranger in the white sport-utility vehicle told her.

The 13-year-old girl ran away.

The man got out and chased her.

He caught up to her, grabbed her by the back of her jacket, threw her to the pavement and began pulling her toward the vehicle.

The girl resisted, clawing at the would-be abductor and ripping his white tank top in the process.

She managed to break free. She ran home, shoeless.

Police found the girl's footwear and a piece of the culprit's ripped undershirt at the scene of the crime.

That is how police documents describe Quamel Benton's foray into Ocean County on the night of March 21, when they alleged he continued on a terrifying crime spree begun in Willingboro in Burlington County. It was there, police allege, where Benton first bashed his pregnant girlfriend on the head with an aluminum baseball bat and fled the area in her car.

Then, after attempting to kidnap the 13-year-old in Lakewood, Benton, 35, of Farmingdale, molested a woman in the parking lot of Target in Toms River, telling her, "I want that a--,'' as he grabbed her, police allege. When the victim called police, the assailant led them on a car chase that was called off when it became too dangerous to other motorists, police allege.

Shortly after midnight the next morning, police were alerted when Benton began pounding on the window of a car occupied by a random woman in Toms River, leading to another pursuit that ended after he crashed his girlfriend's sport-utility vehicle into a telephone pole, police allege.

Police learned only after Benton was apprehended that he was captured on store surveillance video shoplifting a bottle of Hennessy cognac from a Toms River liquor store the night before, according to police documents.

Benton is being held in jail in Burlington County, where he is charged with aggravated assault and possession of a weapon, a baseball bat, for an unlawful purpose.

Following his capture in Toms River shortly after 12:40 a.m. on March 22, Ocean County authorities charged Benton with attempted kidnapping, luring, criminal sexual contact, endangering the welfare of a child, obstruction of justice, resisting arrest and two counts of eluding police

In addition, Toms River police charged Benton with shoplifting.

Benton faces a detention hearing in Ocean County on April 10.

Documents obtained from the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office said police were called to the Willingboro home of Benton's girlfriend about 6:21 p.m. on March 21. There, they found his girlfriend, who is five months pregnant, unresponsive, laying face-down and bleeding from the head.  A baseball bat with suspected blood on it was recovered from the scene.

Several of the victim's children were in the apartment and identified Benton as the assailant, according to the documents. They also told police that Benton left in the victim's white Nissan sport-utility vehicle, the documents said.

A surveillance camera outside the victim's home captured a man in a white tank top entering the victim's vehicle and leaving the scene, according to documents obtained from the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

Then, about 7:30 p.m. on March 21, Lakewood police received a call reporting a kidnapping on Forest Park Circle, according to an affidavit of probable cause to charge Benton in the Ocean County incidents. The caller told police a white sport utility vehicle pulled up, and the driver, wearing a white undershirt, took a 7-year-old from off the street and fled, the document said.

When police showed up, they learned the victim was 13 and that she was able to fight off her attacker and run home, the affidavit said.

The girl's shoes and a piece of a white shirt were found at the crime scene, it said.

The girl then relayed what happened, telling police the vehicle pulled alongside her as she walked on Forrest Park Circle, and that she tried to run away when the driver got out and told her, "get in the car,'' the affidavit said. She told police the stranger caught up with her, threw her to the ground and tried to drag her back to the car, but she fought him off, scratching him and ripping his shirt, the document said.

The girl suffered abrasions to her hip, it said.

A witness who viewed the attempted abduction from across the street and called 911 told police he heard the victim scream and saw a man in a white, sleeveless undershirt on top of the girl, but he lost sight of them behind the vehicle and wasn't sure whether the man had taken the child, the affidavit said.

While Lakewood police were interviewing the girl, they learned of an incident that occurred in Toms River involving a suspect matching the description of the would-be abductor.

Toms River police said that man, who was operating a vehicle appearing similar to the one involved in the Lakewood incident, molested a woman in the parking lot of the Target on Hooper Avenue, according to the affidavit from Ocean County.

That victim told police the assailant came up behind her as she was walking to her car and grabbed her, saying, "I want that a--,'' the affidavit said. She screamed, and he fled, but not before she took a picture of the vehicle and its license plate.

The victim and her mother, who was walking in front of her, both described the assailant and the vehicle for police.

Toms River police located the vehicle, a white 2015 Nissan Pathfinder, and pursued it as the driver got on the Garden State Parkway heading north, but the chase was terminated around mile marker 85 due to excessive speed and danger to other motorists.

Toms River police then learned that Willingboro police were looking for that same vehicle and Benton in connection with the assault there. At that point, New Jersey State Police were notified.

At 12:40 a.m. on March 22, a Toms River man came outside his home when his wife started honking the horn of her car, the affidavit said. The man called police when he saw that a strange man was pounding on the window of his wife's car, with her still inside it.

Toms River police responded and identified the stranger as Benton, leading to another chase.

This time, Benton crashed the white sport-utility vehicle into a telephone pole in the area of Route 70 and Whitesville Road in Toms River. He got out of the vehicle and ran, but tripped, fell to the ground and was apprehended, according to the affidavit.

By now, he was wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt, which was pictured in surveillance video from the Target store.

Benton, who smelled of alcohol and appeared impaired, was taken to Community Medical Center in Toms River for evaluation. He subsequently was turned over to authorities in Burlington County, where he gave a statement to detectives.

In it, he told police his relationship with his girlfriend was "tumultuous'' and that "he remembered a violent episode taking place between the two of them, but did not remember what specifically,'' the Ocean County affidavit said.

He told them he remembered taking his girlfriend's car keys, leaving her apartment and leaving the area in her vehicle, the affidavit said.

"The suspect stated that he was wearing a white, sleeveless undershirt at the time he left her residence,'' the affidavit said. "The suspect stated that he drove to the area of Toms River but did not ever exit the vehicle. The suspect stated that he stopped to change his clothing at a certain point with clothing that he found in the victim's trunk, but denied interacting with anyone else at this time and simply drove around.''

Police found a ripped, white tank top in the white Nissan Pathfinder and an open bottle of Hennessy on the dashboard, the affidavit said.

After Benton's arrest, police learned he had shoplifted the bottle of liquor from a Toms River store and that the theft was captured on the shop's surveillance video, the affidavit said.

Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com.

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This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Lakewood girl thwarted kidnapping by ripping would-be abductor's shirt