Memphis police are searching for a suspect in the Aug. 31 kidnapping of a mother and child from the parking lot of a Target store.
The incident took place two days before Friday’s kidnapping and death of Eliza Fletcher raised tensions in the city.
According to a news release posted on the Memphis Police Department’s Facebook page, one of two suspects was arrested Tuesday.
Police said Will Hayes, 25, was charged with two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping and one count of employment of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.
According to the report, a woman and her one-year-old child were in the parking lot of a Target store when two men got out of a “goldish tan” vehicle and approached them. One of them was armed with a gun.
The armed man pointed the gun at the woman and demanded cash. She said she told the man to take her wallet and credit cards and gave him a PIN for one card, WREG-TV reported.
The woman told police that the man plucked the one-year-old from the shopping cart and forced the woman into the front seat of the suspects’ car while the man with the gun sat in the back with her child, WREG reported.
After the woman withdrew $800 from an ATM at a nearby bank, she and the child were returned to the Target store.
The woman told police that the man with the gun wiped off the debit card that had been used, then threw it back into her purse. The suspects then left, keeping the woman’s wallet, WREG reported.
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The woman ran into the store and called police.
The Memphis police news release said that on Tuesday, officers spotted a gold Chevrolet Malibu hatchback with no license plate. A traffic stop resulted in the arrest of Hayes, who had been identified by “numerous CrimeStoppers tips” as a possible suspect.
The second suspect remains unidentified.
Police have released images of the suspects taken at a Walmart before the Target kidnapping.
WHAT IS GOING ON? This is the second abduction in a matter of days….Memphis mom, 1-year-old abducted outside Target at midday; police hunt suspectshttps://t.co/pRQZcD2pxV
— Gloria (@VoteTrumpPence7) September 3, 2022
Laura Parsons told WREG-TV that she and her children come to the Target where the incident took place
“A one-year-old, it’s not good. Being a mom, it’s very horrible,” she said.
“It makes me want to be aware of my surroundings and lock my doors and possibly carry [mace],” she said.
According to WMC-TV, there is a cash reward for information leading to the arrest of the other suspect in the case.
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