Mom's Facebook trap for man wooing 15-year-old daughter on 'Are You Interested' app

A family who discovered his 15-year-old daughter was being wooed on Facebook by a man twice her age took matters into his own hands.

The mom and dad hatched a Facebook ruse that drew the 30-year-old Federal Way man to Spokane earlier this month.

The relationship began in April through a Facebook dating application called ‘Are You Interested’ and was discovered earlier this month by the parents, court records show.

Richards and the girl exchanged hundreds of Facebook messages, communicated via YouTube, met face-to-face in May and then made plans to elope, court records show.

When the girl's parents discovered the relationship on June 7, they took their daughter's computer and locked her out of her Facebook account.

The mother then continued to message the man, posing as her daughter, and persuaded him to go through with the runaway plan. When he arrived at the family's Spokane home in the early hours of June 8, the girl's father and two of his friends were waiting for him in an alley behind the house. They held him until police arrived.

Then the father and a couple of his buddies staked out the arranged meeting spot and blocked the man's escape until police arrived.

The Spokesman-Review (https://bit.ly/190xaXm) reports that the suspect, identified in court documents as Jason D. Richards, faces charges of child rape and attempted kidnapping in Spokane County Superior Court. He is jailed on a $100,000 bond.

The newspaper did not publish the name of the girl or her family.

Bus driver caught punching passenger

Police say a Phoenix bus driver was caught on cellphone video repeatedly punching a passenger and slamming the man's head against a bench.

Authorities say 45-year-old Todd Allen Shields was charged with assault and other counts and placed on leave.

According to police, passenger Desirae Madrid recorded Shields fighting with a 21-year-old man after the man tried boarding the bus with a reduced fair ticket for minors. Police say the bus driver demanded identification, but the passenger refused.

Madrid told KSAZ-TV that's when she saw Shields pick the man up and throw him off the bus. Police say the video shows Shields attacking the man, who suffered minor injuries.

It was not known if Shields had an attorney. AP

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