MORGAN COUNTY, Ala. – Police arrested a man accused of hiding in his ex-girlfriend’s trunk before kidnapping her and their young child in Tennessee and driving to Alabama Monday.
Authorities responded to a Love’s Travel Center in Falkville, Alabama at around 10 a.m. after a woman told an employee that she had been kidnapped. The employee then called the Falkville Police Department.
Falkville Police Chief Aaron Burgess said the woman got into her vehicle around 7 a.m. with her 1-year-old child. The woman’s ex-boyfriend and father of her child, 22-year-old Samuel Gomez-Benicio, was hiding in the trunk of the car and came through the back seat with a Taser and pepper spray, Chief Burgess 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, authorities said.
Chief Burgess said the suspect had a previous history of abuse with the victim and she was in fear for her life.
As they drove south into Alabama, 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 and was found to have pepper spray in his pocket. Authorities found a Taser and handcuffs in the vehicle.
Gomez-Benicio is charged with first-degree kidnapping and is currently in the Morgan County Jail on a $10,000 bond.
The Morgan County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI North Alabama Violent Crimes Task Force helped with the investigation.