It happened Wednesday afternoon near the area of E. Rosemary Street and N. Columbia Street around 2 p.m.
Chapel Hill police say a woman was jogging when all of a sudden a man grabbed her and started dragging her towards a car.
She managed to escape thanks to the help of two Good Samaritans.
"They saw what they thought was a some type of assault, sometype of an abduction and intervened and may have ultimately saved this person's life," Chapel Hill Police Lt. Kevin Gunter said.
Investigators say one of the Good Samaritans is recovering from minor injuries after the suspect hit him with his vehicle while fleeing the scene.
Police say the suspect, 26-year-old Theodore James Walker, was spotted walking out of a wooded area near the Timber Hollow Apartments on Martin Luther King Blvd shortly after the incident and was arrested.
Walker's vehicle turned up at a the Mill Creek Apartments less than a quarter of a mile away from where the attempted abduction occurred.
Walker has been charged with second degree kidnapping, assault on a female and assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury.
His bond is currently set at $500,000.
UNC student Molly Wanless, who frequently walks in the area where the incident happened, says she's always felt pretty safe, especially during the day.
"For it to be at 2 p.m. in broad daylight, that's really bizarre," Wanless said. "I run in more obscure areas than this and that it would happen in broad daylight and in like a thoroughfare makes me sort of want to reconsider where I've been."
Police are currently looking into whether Walker was involved in any other recent assaults against women.
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