Miami girl who saved cousin up for congressional honor

MIAMI (WSVN) -- The South Florida girl who saved her cousin from an accused kidnapper is competing for a congressional award.

Eight-year-old A'Nari Taylor is a finalist for a bravery award presented by the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation for coming to the rescue of Brandon, her then 4-year-old cousin, last summer.

On July 28, Taylor was playing with Brandon in the courtyard of her apartment complex, located off Northwest 16th Street and Fourth Avenue in Miami. A stranger approached Brandon and tried to take him, which is when Taylor sprang into action.

"I kicked him, scratched him, I screamed," said Taylor. The second grader added that the suspect, David Moore, kept saying, "God told me to take him." Taylor started yelling for help. "'Gimme my cousin! Gimme my cousin,'" Taylor recalls telling Moore.

Taylor then grabbed Moore's arm. "I had his arm, and I was pulling him," Taylor said. Moore was later arrested for kidnapping.

This latest recognition of her bravery is not the first award she has won. Taylor and her mother, Tanya Dingle, help various plaques up to 7News cameras. Now her courage is being celebrated on a national level. "We had to [compete] against 300 people around the world. She made it to 23 finalists," said Dingle. "On March 11, they'll let her know if she made the cut," she continued.

Dingle hopes winning the award will help her daughter get a head start in her academic future. "Out of this we'll get a scholarship, so she can attend college," she said.

Taylor said this experience will help her accomplish her dreams. "[I want to be] a doctor, because I like to help people," she said.

If Taylor is selected, she will go to Washington D.C. to accept the award.

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