(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that Nelson Priester, 39, undomiciled, was indicted for Kidnapping in the Second Degree, for allegedly taking a child from his grandfather while the elder prayed inside a Bay Shore mosque.
“This case highlights the vigilance of our community members who acted quickly to protect a vulnerable child from a dangerous situation,” said District Attorney Tierney. “We are grateful the child was unharmed thanks to the swift intervention of mosque members and fast response from our Suffolk County police officers.”
According to the investigation, on August 20, 2025, the four-year-old victim was with his grandfather inside the Darul Quaran Mosque in Bay Shore during prayer. Priester, who had allegedly been sitting inside the mosque for approximately four hours, approached the child as his grandfather was in prayer, and led the child away by the hand. Priester then allegedly brought the child to the dark basement of the mosque, took a plastic bag from a nearby counter and locked himself inside a dark room with the child.
A Good Samaritan inside the mosque who observed Priester with the child alerted the child’s grandfather and they and other members of the mosque called police and kicked the locked door open to find Priester inside with the child, carrying the plastic bag and a pair of scissors was found in his pocket. Priester was not known to the child or his grandfather. The child was not harmed.
On September 2, 2025, Priester was arraigned on the indictment before Supreme Court Justice John B. Collins for Kidnapping in the Second Degree, a Class B violent felony, Luring a Child, a Class D felony, and Endangering the Welfare of a Child, a Class A misdemeanor.
Justice Collins ordered Priester remanded during the pendency of the case. Priester is due back in court on September 18, 2025, and faces 25 years in prison if convicted on the top count. He is being is represented by William Sammis, Esq.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Melissa Grier of the Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Bureau, and the investigation was conducted by Suffolk County Police Department Third Squad Detective Woochang Kim.