Colombian president says US man detained over Bogotá balcony video was helping choking child, not abusing him
Neighbours in Bogotá’s upscale Usaquén district screamed for a man to stop what they thought was a sexual assault on a child, filming a video that went viral on Sunday. By Monday morning, President Gustavo Petro said preliminary investigations show the US citizen was only trying to help a choking child as part of a private adoption process.
Confrontation on the balcony
On Sunday around midday, residents of the Chicó Navarra neighbourhood saw a man on an apartment balcony with a young child and began shouting furiously. Videos recorded from the street show neighbours yelling “¡Abusador! ¡Suéltelo!”, abuser, let him go, as the man appeared to continue regardless. One witness, Vivian Tatiana Cardozo, described the scene to El Espectador.
We got to the neighbourhood. My sister was looking up and said: ‘What’s that happening up there?’ I couldn’t understand. I thought it was a game, but then it became clearer. So we started shouting: Abuser! Let him go! The guy kept going and then they went inside. It was too shocking.
Metropolitan Police rushed to the building after alerts from the community. Officers detained the man, later identified as a 36‑year‑old US citizen from Texas, and rescued the child, who was taken to a hospital for medical assessment. Inside the apartment they found two other minors, aged 4, 7 and 15 according to authorities. The man had entered Colombia as a tourist on 6 June through El Dorado International Airport.
Petro’s reversal
By Monday morning the narrative shifted dramatically. President Gustavo Petro posted on X that the images had deceived the public and that the man, apparently named Grant Gail according to El Tiempo, had not abused any of the three children.
I must notify Colombian society, because my commitment is with the truth, that the North American citizen from Texas, captured in an apartment in northern Bogotá, apparently did not rape any of his adopted children in Colombia. He took him out to the balcony because of choking from eating food badly.
The president added that Colombians had been “deceived collectively by images that do not match reality” and urged the justice system to “restore all his rights as a human being.” He also used the episode to announce that he wants to end private adoption intermediaries and have the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) manage all adoptions directly.
Adoption process and aftermath
The Procuraduría (Public Ministry) confirmed that the man and his partner were in the middle of an adoption process for the three minors. After the police intervention, the ICBF activated its emergency protection route and placed the children under its care. The three minors remain under medical observation and state guardianship while investigations continue.
- Neighbors in Usaquén see a man on a balcony with a child and shout, suspecting sexual abuse. They film and call police.
- Bogotá Metropolitan Police arrive, arrest the man, and rescue the child. Two other children found inside the apartment.
- The man is identified as a 36‑year‑old US citizen from Texas who entered Colombia as a tourist on 6 June. Children taken to a medical centre.
- President Petro announces investigations show no abuse; the child was choking and the man was helping. He criticises private adoption intermediaries.
- Procuraduría confirms the man and his partner were adopting the three children. ICBF places them under state care.
Broader concerns over foreign exploitation
The incident occurred amid a troubling rise in sexual exploitation cases involving foreigners in Colombia. Migration authorities had already denied entry to more than 60 foreigners on suspicion of sexual exploitation purposes by 21 April this year, surpassing half of the 110 rejections registered in all of 2025. Medellín, in the northwestern department of Antioquia, has become the epicentre, with 48 inadmissions in 2026 alone, most of them US citizens, compared with 80 at the international airport in 2025.
