Amal Al-Saeed

Okaz/Saudi Gazette THE video footage of the cleaver-wielding man chasing two boys in a street in the heart of Riyadh kept lingering in the minds of many people days after the perpetrators behind the kidnap plot were arrested by the authorities. People outraged by the incident kept asking: “What would have happened if the perpetrator had caught up with the two boys?” Police arrested the man and two of his accomplices on charges of attempting to kidnap Badr and his cousin Nawaf, with the help of footages captured by surveillance cameras in a neighbor's house. The video clip of a man holding a cleaver chasing the two boys went viral on social media networks. The boys managed to escape but social media activists demanded the arrest of the man, who came to be known as Abu Satoor (Man With the Cleaver). Investigations led police to three suspects, all of them Saudis in their 30s and 40s. They confessed to the crime and took the police to the location of the vehicle seen in the video. The alleged kidnappers had stolen the vehicle. Okaz/Saudi Gazette visited Al-Murabba District in central Riyadh where the horrifying incident took place to gauge the mood of the residents. Residents of the neighborhood had still not come out of the shock and anger was visible on their faces. When this reporter cautiously approached the residents, they started asking all sorts of questions. The neighborhood had witnessed many unseemly incidents in the past, but none of them were captured by surveillance cameras like the Abu Satoor incident. My heartbeats increased as I crossed the pavement leading to the location deep inside Al-Murabba’ District where Nawaf and Badr lived. Husam Emad, a neighbor of Badr, passed by holding his daughter firmly by the hand. It seemed that he was afraid another Abu Satoor would surface from nowhere in the ramshackle district. While taking this reporter to the boys’ family home, Emad thanked God for sparing the lives of Badr and Nawaf from the criminals. He said: “All of us in the district provided moral support to the families of the two boys. We stayed with them until late night on the day of the incident. We were sure the criminals would not be able to escape the security authorities. The two boys are still suffering from the traumatic incident. What they had experienced was something terrible. Never had such a crime taken place in this district. The residents lived in peace and harmony. Perhaps what had happened was a warning sign to the parents to take extra care of their children.” Badr and his cousin Nawaf had gone to a grocery store nearby to purchase some supplies when they were attacked. Explaining the sequence of events on that fateful day, Badr's father said he was on the ground floor when he heard Nawaf shouting: “Uncle, Open the door. I rushed out but I didn’t find the boys. I saw the criminals’ car, which was blocked by another car. This helped the boys to escape to the neighborhood mosque and hide,” Abu Badr said. “One of the criminals was standing near the vehicle’s door. He was laughing while speaking to the driver of the car that blocked them. Therefore, I didn't have any suspicions about him,” he said. Abu Badr said he looked for Nawaf and Badr, but did not find them. I returned home. Suddenly, my mobile phone rang. On the other end, Badr was crying. He said 'Nawaf and I were about to be kidnapped by a man wielding a cleaver. We are now in the mosque',” Abu Badr said. He added: “I went out of the house in a state of alarm. I got into my car and drove to the mosque. I found the two boys there safe. We reported the matter to the police. Luckily, a neighbor’s surveillance camera had captured the incident. We brought an expert and copied the video into a USB stick and handed it to the police. We were confident the security authorities would arrest the criminals despite their features not being clear in the video. The criminals were not from the district. One of them was from Manfouha and another from Al-Azizia. I saw them at the police station. The cleaver the criminal was wielding was retrieved from their vehicle and it was over 60 cm long.” The mother of one of the children recounted her difficult hour. Umm Badr said she was at her father’s house when the incident took place, while their father was at home. She said she came to know about the incident from Badr. When I heard his story, I thought he was speaking about one of the horror movies, of which he is an avid fan. But I was flabbergasted when my husband told her what had actually happened, she said. Umm Badr added that she watched the video clip the next day. Ever since the incident, she watched her son closely and never allowed him to leave the house alone. Umm Badr said after the Friday prayer, Badr asked his father permission to buy some supplies from the nearby store. He was accompanied by Nawaf. She said the incident had left a negative influence on the two boys. Umm Badr is working hard to help the two boys to overcome the shock. She said Badr had a spate of nightmares since the incident. Badr’s 7-year-old younger sister is also in a bad state of mind. She keeps shouting, “They will take me!”. Umm Badr advises the public not to circulate video clips with such horrifying scenes, as they will leave scars on children's minds. Muhammad Al-Amin, the Indian who ran the nearby grocery store, said: “Nawaf and Badr came to the store and purchased some items and left as usual. I had the least idea that they were walking into harm, otherwise I wouldn’t have allowed them to go alone. I know most of the residents of the district. All of them like me and treat me kindly. I didn’t come to know about the incident until the next day. When I heard children talking about it, I didn’t believe them. But on watching the video clip, I realized how serious the matter was.” Children of the district are in a state of anxiety. Sidrah, a second year intermediate schoolgirl, said she saw the video clip and decided never to go out alone.