A former NHL enforcer helped intervene to apprehend a man who tried to abduct a 7-year-old girl who was with her parents in a Montreal Park Saturday. Georges Laraque was well-suited to his task of detaining the man, said to be 24, while police were on their way. Laraque was taking part in a celebrity baseball game at Jeanne-Mance Park when the family of the girl raised an outcry as the man grabbed the child and walked off with her. Members of the family and public stopped him and Laraque was detailed to stand guard over the man until police arrived. “It was surreal,” Laraque told CBC News. “The park was full of people everywhere.” As many as 30 people surrounded the suspect to ensure he couldn’t leave the park until he was in police custody. “I just wanted to make sure that if he got up that I was going to tackle him right away,” said Laraque, who racked up 1,126 penalty minutes over his 13-year NHL career. Laraque described the incident as “crazy,” adding that it made him feel “a little scared” as a father. “I have twins and this could happen to anyone,” Laraque said. “We’ve heard stories of a child being abducted and to see [something] like that — it’s pretty scary.”
