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An apparently mentally ill woman was arrested after being caught on video trying to take two kids from a family waiting there, WSB-TV reports.

Esther Daniels, 26, of Kansas is being held at the Clayton County jail on kidnapping charges. She’ll have a hearing on July 11th. Airport surveillance cameras picked Daniels showed the attempted abduction.

Via WSBTV.com:

The dramatic surveillance video from inside Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport shows Daniels grabbing a stroller with a child in it. When the mother fought her off, Daniels tried to snatch one of the family’s other children. That’s when the father stepped in.

Altercation starts at 1:15

 

 

An Atlanta police traffic control officer saw what was happening and raced across the airport atrium to break up the attempted kidnapping.

“She deserves all the praise,” Atlanta police spokeswoman Tashena Brown said. “Especially for her to have been working, really, in a civilian capacity, for her to just to jump in right away with no hesitation is amazing.”

That officer held Daniels until backup arrived and took her down.

“Her behavior was very erratic, but we can’t really speak on what her mental state was, but we can agree that what she did was very erratic and odd, to say the least,” Brown said.

The video also shows police struggling to subdue Daniels and keeping hold of her as they lead her away.

“That’s why we go through our training and make sure, of course, we’re able to get that person in custody, hopefully without any injuries or anything like that, but they had to do what they needed to do in order to subdue her to put her into custody,” Brown said.

It took three officers to get the woman under control, and she was eventually put in a wheelchair to be escorted to the airport police precinct. The children were not injured, police said.

PHOTO: ThinkStock

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