Body cam video released in attempted Ponce Inlet kidnapping

'Your pants don't fit? Is that why they're unbuttoned?'

PONCE INLET, Fla. – Body cam video released by the Ponce Inlet Police Department shows the exchange between law enforcement and a man accused of trying to abduct a teenage girl as she was walking to her bus stop.

Jonathan Andrew Buchanan, 26, was pulled over in Daytona Beach Shores. The officer who stopped him said he was speeding over Dunlawton Bridge Thursday morning, about three miles from the scene of the attempted abduction.

The officer almost immediately asks Buchanan, 26, why his pants are unbuttoned. 

"Yeah, they're too tight," Buchanan said. "I've been gaining a lot of weight."

Buchanan claims he was coming from the beach. As the officer asks Buchanan for his paperwork, he notices the man seems nervous.

"You're shaking like a leaf," the officer said.

Buchanan replied that he was cold. He also told the officer that a stuffed bear in the back seat belonged to him. Along with the bear, police said some type of lotion or cream was found in the car.

About 30 minutes into the video, Buchanan tells this officer that the encounter seems like more than just a routine traffic stop. He's arrested about a minute later.

A 16-year-old girl told police that Buchanan approached her at about 6 a.m. Thursday while she was walking to her bus stop. She said he pulled over, got out of his car and tried to pull her into his vehicle, according to a news release.

"This time he stopped his car right beside me, got out and was trying to talk to me. He, like, sexually touched me and I told him to get away and so then he tried to cover my mouth, but I screamed and he, like, pushed me off and then he got in his car and drove away," the girl told 911.

The teen screamed, scratched and bit Buchanan so she was able to get away. She told 911 that Thursday's incident was the second time Buchanan tried to lure her into his car.

Records show two children accused Buchanan of inappropriately at a pool in 2010, but there was not enough evidence to press charges.

In 2015, a woman said that Buchanan asked a 30-year-old woman to have sex with him, police said. When she denied his request, he said "please" and then drove away, records show. He was not charged in that incident.

Buchanan is charged with attempted kidnapping and battery in Thursday's incident. His bond was set at $75,000 and he's ordered 


Recommended Videos