GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A 12-year-old Grand Rapids girl says she managed to get away from a stranger who grabbed her at the bus stop when she dropped something, then ran home screaming for her mother.

“Everyone says, ‘You were so calm and collected,'” the girl told News 8 Thursday. “I wasn’t calm at all. I was scared.”

Marquis Martinez, 25, was arraigned Thursday on charges of attempted second-degree criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping. Bond was set at $500,000.

GIRL RECOUNTS STRANGER GRABBING HER

Investigators say Martinez grabbed the 12-year-old around 6:45 a.m. Tuesday morning as she waited for her bus in the area of Ball Avenue NE and Bradford Street.

The girl, whose name News 8 is not using because she is a minor and because she is listed as the victim in a crime, said she frequently beats her schoolmates to the bus stop, so she was alone at the time. She said she first saw the man across the street and thought nothing of it.

“He crossed to my side and then he walked behind me and I thought, ‘Oh, maybe he’s just going for a walk,’ because during those times people are walking their dog or taking a little jog,” she said.

Then, she said, he grabbed her.

“He comes back and puts his hand over my mouth and grabs my waist and tells me to walk,” she recounted. “He guided me across the street towards the garden, behind some bushes.”

In court documents, investigators say they have surveillance video showing it happen.

“I was asking him questions like, ‘Are you going to shoot me?'” the girl said. “He said no. ‘Are you going to hurt me?’ He said no. ‘Are you going to kill me?’ He said no.

“Once we got behind the bushes, he said, ‘I just want to have fun,'” she continued.

She said she tried to talk him into letting her go, but he wouldn’t. She said he tried to get his hand into her pants, but couldn’t because she was wearing a belt. Then she dropped her cellphone on the ground, she said, and he told her she could pick it up, at which point she was able to get away.

“He stepped back and I ran,” she told News 8. “He tried to grab me; he slightly did. But I’m really fast.”

She took off toward home and started shouting.

“I came running into the house saying, ‘Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom,'” she said. “I yelled as loud as I could.”

“She came flying in the door and we met at the door,” the girl’s mother told News 8. “Then time stopped and then it went slow and then I was outside running through the garden in my bare feet and T-shirt” trying to find the man.

She called police.

The girl said she hasn’t been able to shake memories of what happened and does not feel OK being alone outside.

COURT DOCUMENTS: SUSPECT SAID HE ‘FELT AWFUL’

Martinez was soon arrested after the fire department got a report of a man in the woods who may need medical attention and flagged him as someone who matched the suspect’s description, the Grand Rapids police chief told News 8. Court documents said he was wearing the same clothes as the person in the video and that the girl identified him as the man who grabbed her.

Court documents say that when police interviewed him, Martinez “admitted to contacting” the girl. He also said he had been drinking the night before and “remembered feeling happy when he woke up.”

“(Martinez) said during contact with (the girl), he said hi and probably hugged her,” the document reads in part. “(Martinez) said when he is drunk, he tries to be friendly however it comes off as being weird.”

The document goes on to say that Martinez told police “he felt awful about what happened, and described (the girl) as a sweet girl who would not lie about something like this happening.”

He penned an apology note to her, the document says, in which he wrote “about being so sorry and that he didn’t mean to do any of that.”

Martinez’s next court dates are set for Dec. 3 and Dec. 10.

‘HE’S A PREDATOR’

The girl’s mother, whose name News 8 is not using to protect her daughter’s identity, told News 8 she “couldn’t be more proud.”

“I’m so proud of her. She couldn’t have done anything else more right,” she said, noting that her daughter didn’t panic and analyzed the situation. “She said that she was going along just to see where her escape might be or her out might be, and when she saw it she took it.”

Grand Rapids Police Department Chief Eric Winstrom on Wednesday praised the girl as “brave” and “a hero.”

“To her family’s credit, whatever adults are in her life, they taught her exactly what to do, the same thing I teach my kids: You’ve got to yell, you’ve got to fight, you’ve got to run,” he said.

He said her actions helped get a “monster” off the street.

“Predators like this, they do not stop,” he said.

He said police would be looking into any similar reports to see if Martinez could have tried to harm anyone else.

“He’s a predator,” the girl’s mother said, “and if she wouldn’t have caught him and stood up to him, who knows how many other kids he could have done this to.”

The girl is a seventh grader at Grand Rapids Public Schools. The district sent a letter to parents Tuesday urging them to talk to their kids about safety. At an event Thursday, GRPS Chief of Staff and Executive Director of Public Safety & School Security Larry Johnson told News 8 that the district will keep working with community partners to ensure safety as kids get to and from school.

“We will continue to emphasize key safety information for families, encouraging open conversations with children about staying alert and traveling in groups when possible,” Johnson said. “We also urge our community to report any suspicious activity to law enforcement immediately, helping to maintain a safe city for everyone.”

The girl’s mother said their apartment complex is now going to leave the community building open for students while they wait for the bus.

—News 8’s Demetrios Sanders contributed to this report.