He Reached for a Stranger’s Baby at Pike Place Market —
No Felony Was Ever Charged.
On the morning of July 9, 2026, a man approached a mother, her infant in a stroller, and the baby’s grandmother at Pike Place Market, complimented the crying child, then allegedly grabbed the stroller and tried to pull it away, according to Seattle police. He was stopped only when the baby’s 61-year-old grandmother kicked him and the child’s father physically blocked him from following the fleeing mother into a nearby shop. He got away with nothing but the baby’s blanket before officers arrived and arrested him.
Police booked Magdaleno Cid-Perez, 36, on suspicion of kidnapping. A judge found probable cause and set bail at $100,000 — $50,000 below what prosecutors requested for conduct their own office called “super concerning.” Four days later, on July 13, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office delivered a different verdict on paper: the case, investigators concluded, did not meet Washington’s legal standard for a felony.
That is not the same thing as saying nothing happened. It is a specific, sourced finding about what a stranger grabbing for someone else’s baby in a crowded tourist market does and does not amount to under state law — and it is why this story is about a declined felony, not a dropped case.
- $100,000 — bail a King County judge set for Magdaleno Cid-Perez — $50,000 below the $150,000 prosecutors requested · Source: KOMO News
- 0 felonies — charged against Cid-Perez as of this writing, four days after his arrest · Source: King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, via KOMO News
- 61 — age of the grandmother whose kick stopped the suspect from getting away with the stroller · Source: FOX13 Seattle; KIRO 7
- 4 days — from arrest (July 9) to the prosecutor's office confirming no felony would be filed (July 13) · Source: KOMO News
- 0 prior cases — referred to the King County Prosecutor's Office against Cid-Perez before this arrest · Source: KOMO News
The encounter unfolded just before 11:30 a.m. Thursday at 1920 Pike Place, near Victor Steinbrueck Park at the market’s north end. According to Seattle police, Cid-Perez approached the family, told them how beautiful their baby was, then reached into the stroller and tried to pull it away from the mother. The grandmother kicked him to create space; she and her daughter ran with the child into a nearby shop. Cid-Perez followed and tried to force his way in, police say, but the baby’s father — who had just arrived — blocked the door. Officers tracked Cid-Perez down and booked him into King County Jail that afternoon.
“The man then tried to grab the stroller with the child inside but was only able to snatch the baby blanket,” police told KIRO 7 — the closest thing to an official narrative of how close the encounter came, and how little, in the end, the suspect actually got.
At his first court appearance, a judge found probable cause to hold Cid-Perez. Prosecutors asked for $150,000 bail, arguing the conduct was serious enough to justify it; the judge — unnamed in any reporting reviewed for this story — set bail at $100,000. Records reviewed by KOMO News show no prior cases referred to the King County Prosecutor’s Office against Cid-Perez before this arrest: no reported criminal history predating July 9.
On July 13, four days after the arrest, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office told KOMO News the case would not become a felony filing.
“SPD did not believe that this case met felony filing standards under state law based on the evidence available, and accordingly, SPD detectives are referring the case to the Seattle City Attorney's Office for consideration of filing at the misdemeanor level.”
King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, statement to KOMO News, July 13, 2026
Washington’s kidnapping statute, RCW 9A.40, does not criminalize approaching or grabbing at someone — it requires “abduction,” defined as restraining a person by secreting them or by using or threatening deadly force. A completed kidnapping charge needs the state to prove the suspect actually gained physical control of the victim. On the evidence described by police, Cid-Perez never did: the grandmother’s kick and the father’s block stopped him before he restrained the child at all. That gap — contact without control — is almost certainly what drove the felony-standards finding, not a softer read of the underlying conduct.
That distinction matters for accuracy, not for absolution. This is not simply “no charges.” It is a felony declined on a specific evidentiary basis and downgraded to a misdemeanor review that, as of this writing, has not concluded. The Seattle City Attorney’s Office has not publicly named which misdemeanor statute it is weighing, or when — or whether — it will file anything at all.
The tension sits inside the prosecutor’s own public statements. Days before the felony was declined, spokesman Douglas Wagoner, the office’s Legislative and Public Affairs Director, explained why prosecutors pushed for six-figure bail. “An attempted kidnapping, that’s really concerning behavior. That’s why we saw prosecutors ask for the high bail amount,” he told MyNorthwest.
“When we see this kind of behavior, which is super concerning... anytime we see an attempted kidnapping, in this case, you know, involving a very young child, we are going to make those arguments to hold the suspects in court.”
Douglas Wagoner, King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, to FOX13 Seattle
Nothing in that language is legally inconsistent with the felony decision that followed — bail arguments and charging standards are different questions, decided under different burdens of proof. But the gap between them is the story: an office whose own spokesman called the conduct “super concerning” enough to justify $150,000 in bail spent four days investigating and concluded that the one charge built for exactly this behavior — kidnapping — could not be proven on the facts it had.
The office that made the felony call is led by Leesa Manion, King County Prosecuting Attorney since 2023. The seat is officially nonpartisan, but Manion’s 2022 race for it was not read that way: she was endorsed by former Govs. Gary Locke and Christine Gregoire, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay, and the King County Democrats — a nonpartisan office widely identified with the county’s Democratic establishment. Her opponent, then-Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell, drew the law-enforcement-union and Republican-aligned vote instead: 51 percent of Trump voters favored Ferrell against 10 percent for Manion, per Ballotpedia.
The file Manion’s office declined to charge as a felony now sits with Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans, sworn in January 7, 2026, after defeating Republican incumbent Ann Davison 66.8 percent to 33 percent — a race that likewise drew the King County Democrats’ endorsement, in another technically nonpartisan office widely identified with the same Democratic establishment. Evans, a former Justice Department civil-rights prosecutor who resigned in 2025, must now decide whether any misdemeanor charge follows at all. Her office has not set a public timetable.
Leesa Manion — King County Prosecuting Attorney; nonpartisan office widely identified with the King County Democratic establishment — her office found the felony standard unmet.
Douglas Wagoner — Legislative and Public Affairs Director, King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office — argued publicly for $150,000 bail, calling the conduct “super concerning.”
Erika Evans — Seattle City Attorney; nonpartisan office widely identified with the same Democratic establishment; sworn in January 2026 — now decides whether any misdemeanor charge follows.
Bruce Harrell — Seattle Mayor — has made no public statement on this case; his 2026 city budget includes $3.6 million for Pike Place Market pedestrian-safety infrastructure.
Cid-Perez remains presumed innocent of any charge, felony or misdemeanor; none has been filed as of this writing. “Suspicion of kidnapping” describes the classification police used to book him, not a legal finding against him. Records reviewed by KOMO show no prior cases referred to the King County Prosecutor’s Office in his name before July 9 — no documented history that would have flagged him before that morning at Pike Place Market.
What is documented is narrower, and in its way more unsettling: a stranger reached twice for an infant he had no connection to, in daylight, in one of the country’s most photographed public markets, and was stopped only by a 61-year-old woman’s kick and a father who happened to arrive in time. Seattle’s City Attorney now decides what that is worth calling. As of this writing, no one has decided what to call it at all.
A man reached for a stranger’s baby twice at Pike Place Market, stopped only by a grandmother’s kick and a father’s block. Prosecutors called it “super concerning” enough to request $150,000 bail — then four days later said the conduct, as investigated, didn’t meet Washington’s felony standard for kidnapping, because the suspect was stopped before he ever gained control of the child. That is not a dropped case; it is a declined felony now parked in misdemeanor review at the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, with no charge — and no timetable — yet on the books.
