A registered sex offender is being held in the Boulder County Jail for attempting to kidnap a 5-year-old boy, police say.
The incident happened Sunday on the Pearl Street Mall.
Police Tasered a second man, a friend of the suspect, who made “karate-chop movements” toward police and friends of the 5-year-old victim, authorities said in a press release.
Police were called at about 6:45 p.m. by the child’s mother, who reported that someone had taken her son from the Old Chicago restaurant patio at 11th and Pearl streets.
Police say 55-year-old Frank McCowan approached the mother and her friends on the patio, talking to them about sports and remarked that the 5-year-old is “a cute kid.” When the boy’s mother went to the restroom, McCowan allegedly asked the child, who was wearing Heelys shoes with wheels, if he wanted to go skating on the mall.
When the mother came back, she found the child missing and called 911.
When police arrived, they found the mother with a group of her friends outside the restaurant in a confrontation with McCowan and a group of his friends. An acquaintance of McCowan became agitated and went into a karate routine, police said.
Police used a Taser on Walter Chalco-Paramachi, 25, of Lafayette, said Sarah Huntley, a police spokeswoman.
Chalco-Paramachi was taken to a local hospital, where he was medically cleared. He was issued a summons for obstructing police.
McCowan, a registered sex offender, is being held at the Boulder jail on suspicion of criminal attempted kidnapping, Huntley said. The suspect was arrested in 2005 for sexually assaulting an at-risk adult.
The boy was not injured and was returned to his mother’s care.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
