14 DAY TRIAL // A community is in turmoil after a 14-year-old girl has been abducted at gunpoint from Ellenwood, Georgia.
Ayvani Hope Perez disappeared from her home and she was reportedly taken by two armed men. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution describes that she has been missing since early Tuesday.
The girl's mother and the victim's sibling witnessed the kidnapping. The mom tried protecting the kids after being asked to give up her cash and jewelry.
She could not offer anything to the two men, so they took her daughter. The suspects have not been identified, but their portraits, as drawn by police experts, are attached to this news article.
The pair burst into the home at 2:15 a.m. ABC News added that they shot the family dog before leaving with the girl.
"We are extremely concerned, because if anybody could hurt a puppy just like this, what else could they do?" Clayton County Police Officer Phong Nguyen comments.
“It didn’t appear that they knew each other. [...] They just moved in about a month ago,” Nguyen explains.
The kidnappers have asked for $10,000 (€7,490) in ransom money, but the family cannot come up with that amount.
“My brother doesn’t have a clue. He doesn’t have any money like that,” Ayvani’s aunt, Suky Guerrero, says.
The girl's father, Alberto Perez, is divorced from her mother and doesn't live in the area.
"I want to tell her that I love her," said Perez's friend and classmate Ariana Soeun. "I hope that she comes home because she knows everybody misses her."
Community members have been urged to contribute to the search effort by providing relevant information about her whereabouts.
“This is the time for the Clayton community and the community as a whole to come together. [...] We’re trying to make sure that we bring her some safely,” Clayton County Police Chief Gregory Porter states.