Ex-student faces off-campus kidnapping, assault charges

By David Peters

LOGOS STAFF WRITER

A former University of the Incarnate Word sprinter is no longer a student after a run-in with the law.

Myrajah Deshjonae Rankin, 19, was a student-athlete when she was charged Feb. 16 in Bexar County with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in a case involving a 3-year-old boy and his mother, according to local police and media accounts.

Last August, Rankin, a freshman, joined UIW’s track-and-field team from Cedar Ridge High School in Round Rock.

Asked about her status at UIW, the university only gave the time she was a student: Aug. 22, 2022, through March 22, 2023.

“According to federal law, we can only provide you with the dates the student attended UIW,” said Michael Valdes, media and public relations manager for UIW’s Office of Communications & Brand Marketing.

According to media and police accounts, Rankin was charged Feb. 16 with trying to kidnap the boy and stabbing his 28-year-old mother with a screwdriver outside the Villa Rodriguez apartment complex, 3251 Nacogdoches Road.

The San Antonio Police Department said the mother noticed a woman she didn’t know approaching her son around 2 that afternoon. When the mother told the woman – later identified as Rankin -- to get away from

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