BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio (WXIX) – A 20-year-old man was arrested for an attempted carjacking early Monday near Edgewood High School, Trenton police confirmed.

“It’s a strange thing that happened this morning,” said Sergeant Flick. “This kind of nonsense really doesn’t happen here. We’re just glad it had nothing to do with the high school.”

The suspect, whose name was not immediately released, was taken into custody shortly after the crying victim called 911 around 7:15 a.m., Trenton police Sergeant Craig Flick confirmed.

“He had the gun pointed through the windshield directly at me. He walked closer to the hood of my car and yelled, ‘Get out of the damn car!'” the victim, Amanda Smith, 30, of Hamilton, recalled in an interview with FOX19 NOW.

“I got out of the car. I didn’t take anything out. I left my purse. I know I sound so calm, but I’m just shocked that this happened to me in broad daylight while I was on my way to work.”

Smith is a medical assistant at Premier Orthopedics at Atrium Medical Center in Middletown. She was driving there in her white 2018 Chevy Malibu when it happened around 7:10 a.m. near Edgewood High School.

“I got out of the car. I walked down to the grass. I held my hands up in the air. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to argue with him. I didn’t want to fight. He had a gun pointed at me. I kept my hands up the whole time.

“He had a young woman with him. She walked over to me and said to him, ‘Don’t do that. Why are you doing that?’ She was also very calm. She wasn’t crying. She just didn’t seem surprised that she saw that. He didn’t touch me. He wanted to get in the car, but when he saw that she was mad at him, he left my driver’s side open. They walked away. He told me, ‘You can get back in your car.'”

Smith got in her car and immediately called 911. Crying, she described the incident, described the suspect, and told the dispatcher that he was walking toward New Miami.

She drove to the high school, which was less than a minute away, parked, and waited for an officer to pick her up.

Sergeant Flick and Trenton police officer Kyle Root also came and stayed with her the whole time: “They were great,” Smith said.

The sheriff’s office discovered the suspect nearby and arrested him.

The attempted car theft itself occurred just outside of Trenton in St. Clair Township.

Edgewood High School is located nearby in the city of Trenton

The suspect is under arrest, but Sergeant Flick said he did not know exactly what charges would be brought against him.

“I’m just so glad he didn’t do anything to me,” Smith said.

“I just feel like he had every intention of possibly killing me. He had a gun pointed at my face. I asked the police if he had a real gun and they said he did. They said, ‘We got him, ma’am.'”

Smith said she was grateful that the woman intervened, but also knew that she was more concerned with helping the suspect than with her.

“I think if the woman hadn’t said anything, I don’t know what would have happened. This happened right at the time the kids were leaving for school in the morning,” Smith said.

“It didn’t seem like she wanted to help me. She wanted to keep him out of trouble. She didn’t seem surprised at all by his behavior.”

FOX19 NOW has repeatedly reached out to the Butler County Sheriff’s Office.

We will update this story once we receive a response.

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