Kidnapped girl recalls how she carried brother to safety

A 9-year-old Las Vegas girl who carried her baby brother to safety after the siblings were abducted by a carjacker has recounted how she pleaded with the man to let them go.

Nyla Prentiss and her 11-month-old brother King were in the backseat of the Dodge SUV when their mom, Karen Quinn, stopped to use an ATM about 8:30 p.m. Oct. 25.

The suspect, 38-year-old Mario Estrada, jumped inside the vehicle and drove off as Quinn desperately tried to stop him – begging him to let her kids out.

As he bolted away, Nyla also pleaded for him to stop, Fox 5 Vegas reported.

“I was like, ‘Please sir, please let us out the car,’” the plucky fourth-grader told the news outlet.

“‘I ain’t got nothing to do with this, please just take the car and let us go,’” Nyla said she told the man.

Recounting the harrowing experience, Nyla said the suspect had looked at her mother “in a strange way, and then he, he ran outside, and then he tried to open my mom’s door.

“And then my mom came outside and she was like, ‘What are you doing next to my car?’” the girl said.

Quinn said she had locked the door before stepping inside the store briefly, but that it unlocked when the car’s technology sensed that her key was nearby as she rushed to confront the suspect.

“So her car unlocked and then he got in the car and he zoomed,” Nyla told Fox 5 Vegas. “And I didn’t want to put my hands on him because he was driving fast and I didn’t want to die, so… and then he turned and he went the other way.”

After a few terrifying moments, the man pulled over and uttered, “Get out,” she said.

“The only thing I was worried about was my little brother. And so I tried to grab my shoes, and he didn’t let me. He was like, ‘Here, get out.’ So I grabbed his binky and me and him ran,” Nyla said.

Nyla suffers from a rare disease that caused her kidney to painfully swell during the terrifying incident, her mom said.

But despite the pain and terror, the girl found her way back to the 7-Eleven about five blocks away – running barefoot while clutching her brother.

“I was looking for some lights, and then I saw the 7-Eleven that we was at, and then I went in there and I was shaking and crying,” Nyla recounted.

Police who were working at the scene located both the children and called Quinn to tell her the good news.

An officer soon spotted the stolen SUV on I-15, leading to a high-speed pursuit that ended when Estrada crashed into another vehicle.

He allegedly climbed out of the wrecked Dodge and tried to flee on foot but was quickly apprehended.

Estrada faces 10 charges, including child abuse or neglect, second-degree kidnapping and grand larceny of a motor vehicle.