Having a newborn baby gives a new mom plenty to worry about with feeding, sleeping, diapers, and the like. One Sioux Falls woman had to worry about something far more stressful and scary.

According to Dakota News Now, a 20-year-old Lennox man allegedly tried to kidnap a 7-month-old baby on Wednesday morning. A woman was carrying her baby in a car seat carrier on North Cleveland Avenue when Mitchell Tyler Rust when he grabbed the car seat and reached in for the baby. The woman was able to escape the situation with her baby. She ran to the apartment of a friend and called Sioux Falls Police.

Rust was arrested in the area of the alleged abduction and was charged with second-degree kidnapping and simple assault.

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What can a parent in this situation do? South Dakota's recently passed House Bill 1212, also known as the so-called "Stand Your Ground" law, clarified what was already allowed under state law.

According to SDCL 22.18.4, a parent could use force, meaning hitting, punching, striking, tackling, etc to prevent the crime. In addition, SDCL 22.18.4.1 allows for the threatening or actually using deadly force "if the person reasonably believes that using or threatening to use deadly force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself, herself, or another, or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony." Kidnapping is defined as a forcible felony.

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