Police arrest alleged car-jacker who kidnapped child
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Video: Police arrest alleged carjacker
HIALEAH, Fla. (WSVN) -- Hialeah Police have arrested a man they said car-jacked a family and abducted a 4-year-old child.
Jorge Barban, 26, faces charges of kidnapping, car-jacking and child abuse, among others. Wednesday afternoon at around 3:45, Hialeah Police said, he forced a grandmother, mother and her son out of their car and sped off with the woman's other son, who was sitting in the backseat.
About a half hour later, after a massive manhunt with the aid of Miami-Dade Police, authorities found the car and the boy at the Okeechobee Metro-Rail Station. The boy was not hurt.
Police said they later tracked down Barban at around 1 a.m. Thursday, after eyewitnesses at the scene of the car jacking said they knew him and identified him by name.
Apparently, Barban was on a crime spree when he took the car with the child in it. He was fleeing a hit and run crash with injuries when he approached the boy's mother, as she sat in her black Ford Taurus at a Publix parking lot at the Westfield Mall, located at West 49th Street and 16th Avenue.
Police said he grabbed Yalaina Romero by the hair and pulled her out of the driver's seat. "The guy just came out of nowhere," said Romero, "and he told me, 'Get off the car.' He grabs me, he throws me off the car, the car was still running. My mom was still inside the car with the kids, and I was telling him please, 'Let my kids out.'"
He ignored her and took off for a little while with Romero's grandmother, Aracelys Romero, in the passenger seat and her 5-year-old and 4-year-old sons in the back seat of the car. The grandmother got out of the car when Barban briefly stopped it. According to Oreste Sosa, the uncle of the children, the suspected car thief had hit the grandmother and threatened her before she stepped out of the vehicle. "The guy jumped in the car, slapped my mom around, told her to get out of the car before he kills her, so my mom got out of the car," Sosa said.
Sosa also said his mother asked to have the children before the suspect fled. "She told him, 'Let me grab the kid,' and he just took off with the kid in the car," Sosa said. He also said the suspect threw the 5-year-old boy out the window before he disappeared with the younger one. "Supposedly about two miles down the road, from what I hear, he dumped the child out the window in the middle of the street," Sosa added.
Though the other boy was found soon after, safe and healthy, Sosa expressed his anger with the car-jacker's actions. "I don't have any kind of tolerance for anybody that does anything to little kids, especially kids around that age, you know. I mean, it's truly sad," said Sosa.
What could add to these charges was the hit and run crash that preceded the car jacking, not to mention what had lead up to the car-jacking about a week earlier. Police explained that Barban had been at the wheel of a white Range Rover, earlier that day fleeing a man who had called 911 to say Barban had stolen money from him.
Police said he crashed his Rover at West 16th Avenue and 53rd Street into a Honda driven by Efrain Conde who sustained injuries to his arm before Barban ran to the Publix parking lot.
Yoes Penton had been chasing Barban before the crash speaking to a 911 operator to report him as a thief. It turned out that Penton had reported Barban to police on April 20, after he said he met with the suspect to purchase four car rims for $1200. Police explained that though Barban took the money, he never produced the rims. Penton had reported the incident to Hialeah Police as an armed robbery before he saw him on the street the day of the car-jacking and called 911 to report him.
Both the grandmother in the carjacking and Penton fingered Barban in a police line-up earlier Thursday morning. It turns out Barban is not a stranger to police either. He has been charged with other crimes in the past, including several counts of resisting arrest.
Barban is being held without bond.
Enlarge this image
Related Article Links
Video: Police arrest alleged carjacker
HIALEAH, Fla. (WSVN) -- Hialeah Police have arrested a man they said car-jacked a family and abducted a 4-year-old child.
Jorge Barban, 26, faces charges of kidnapping, car-jacking and child abuse, among others. Wednesday afternoon at around 3:45, Hialeah Police said, he forced a grandmother, mother and her son out of their car and sped off with the woman's other son, who was sitting in the backseat.
About a half hour later, after a massive manhunt with the aid of Miami-Dade Police, authorities found the car and the boy at the Okeechobee Metro-Rail Station. The boy was not hurt.
Police said they later tracked down Barban at around 1 a.m. Thursday, after eyewitnesses at the scene of the car jacking said they knew him and identified him by name.
Apparently, Barban was on a crime spree when he took the car with the child in it. He was fleeing a hit and run crash with injuries when he approached the boy's mother, as she sat in her black Ford Taurus at a Publix parking lot at the Westfield Mall, located at West 49th Street and 16th Avenue.
Police said he grabbed Yalaina Romero by the hair and pulled her out of the driver's seat. "The guy just came out of nowhere," said Romero, "and he told me, 'Get off the car.' He grabs me, he throws me off the car, the car was still running. My mom was still inside the car with the kids, and I was telling him please, 'Let my kids out.'"
He ignored her and took off for a little while with Romero's grandmother, Aracelys Romero, in the passenger seat and her 5-year-old and 4-year-old sons in the back seat of the car. The grandmother got out of the car when Barban briefly stopped it. According to Oreste Sosa, the uncle of the children, the suspected car thief had hit the grandmother and threatened her before she stepped out of the vehicle. "The guy jumped in the car, slapped my mom around, told her to get out of the car before he kills her, so my mom got out of the car," Sosa said.
Sosa also said his mother asked to have the children before the suspect fled. "She told him, 'Let me grab the kid,' and he just took off with the kid in the car," Sosa said. He also said the suspect threw the 5-year-old boy out the window before he disappeared with the younger one. "Supposedly about two miles down the road, from what I hear, he dumped the child out the window in the middle of the street," Sosa added.
Though the other boy was found soon after, safe and healthy, Sosa expressed his anger with the car-jacker's actions. "I don't have any kind of tolerance for anybody that does anything to little kids, especially kids around that age, you know. I mean, it's truly sad," said Sosa.
What could add to these charges was the hit and run crash that preceded the car jacking, not to mention what had lead up to the car-jacking about a week earlier. Police explained that Barban had been at the wheel of a white Range Rover, earlier that day fleeing a man who had called 911 to say Barban had stolen money from him.
Police said he crashed his Rover at West 16th Avenue and 53rd Street into a Honda driven by Efrain Conde who sustained injuries to his arm before Barban ran to the Publix parking lot.
Yoes Penton had been chasing Barban before the crash speaking to a 911 operator to report him as a thief. It turned out that Penton had reported Barban to police on April 20, after he said he met with the suspect to purchase four car rims for $1200. Police explained that though Barban took the money, he never produced the rims. Penton had reported the incident to Hialeah Police as an armed robbery before he saw him on the street the day of the car-jacking and called 911 to report him.
Both the grandmother in the carjacking and Penton fingered Barban in a police line-up earlier Thursday morning. It turns out Barban is not a stranger to police either. He has been charged with other crimes in the past, including several counts of resisting arrest.
Barban is being held without bond.
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