Suspect hid in trunk, kidnapped ex-girlfriend with Taser, pepper-spray: Police
08/20/2020 10:57 am PDT
By Jess Grotjahn, WHNT
MORGAN COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) -- A Tennessee woman was safely rescued at a gas station after police say she was kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend.
Authorities were called to the Love's Travel Center off exit 322 in Falkville at around 10 a.m. on Monday. A woman told an employee she had been kidnapped and the employee called Falkville Police.
Police said the woman got into her vehicle around 7 a.m. with her child, where 22-year-old Samuel Gomez-Benicio, the woman's ex-boyfriend and the 1-year-old child's father, was hiding in the trunk of the car and came through the back seat with a Taser and pepper-spray.
Authorities said Gomez-Benicio made the woman pull over and handcuffed her before driving to his mother's home to change vehicles and drop off the child. Investigators say the victim convinced him to stop at a gas station so that she could use the restroom.
Police say the suspect resisted arrest. Gomez-Benicio is charged with first-degree kidnapping and was held in the Morgan County Jail on a $10,000 bond.
MORE: Kidnapping plot foiled at a Morgan County gas station - WHNT