Stranger grabs boy, 10, on Hub street

He was just 3 feet away, but a father says he wasn't close enough to protect his 10-year-old son from a man who allegedly briefly kidnapped the fifth grader on a downtown Boston street.

"It was surreal. I was in shock that somebody, in broad daylight, would be willing to come up and grab a child," the father said in a telephone interview yesterday.

The father, who agreed to a Globe interview on the condition that his name and hometown not be published because the criminal case is active, said he was in Boston with relatives marking a family tradition.

On Saturday, seven people, including the 10-year-old, were headed back to their downtown hotel.

According to the father, Boston police and the Suffolk district attorney's office, David A. Johnson, a 39-year-old homeless man, interrupted their holiday about 5 p.m. as the family was walking on Boylston street near Copley Square.

Johnson was arraigned yesterday in Boston Municipal Court, where he pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, and assault and battery charges. Judge Sally Kelly agreed with prosecutor Leora Joseph's suggestion and ordered Johnson held on $75,000 cash bail.

The man said his son and an older nephew were walking behind him when he heard his son shouting "Dad!" The man said he turned and saw his son enveloped in the arms and green jacket of a stranger.

The father grabbed his son from the stranger, and as his wife took the child into a store, the father said he told the stranger not to touch his son. The stranger replied that he was just playing.

After the stranger walked away, the father said he spotted a police officer riding a bike, Officer Daniel E. MacDonald, and told him what had happened and described the suspect. He said MacDonald quickly tracked down the suspect and arrested Johnson.

In court, the prosecutor said that Johnson was convicted in East Boston Municipal Court in 2002 for lewd and lascivious behavior and indecent exposure after he exposed himself to some children. He was not listed yesterday among the state's most dangerous sex offenders.

Johnson's defense attorney, Joshua Hanye, asked the judge to set a reasonable bail and urged her not to conclude that his client was guilty.

Johnson is due back in court on Jan. 16.