Florida

Woman Abducted at Gunpoint Jumps From Car: Hollywood Police

A man who abducted a woman at gunpoint outside her Hollywood home and forced her to drive to an ATM was arrested after the woman jumped from her moving car to escape, police said.

Bernard Deandre Owens, 21, was arrested Tuesday on charges including kidnapping, armed robbery and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, according to a Hollywood Police report.

Owens appeared in court Wednesday where he was ordered held without bond. It's unknown if he's hired an attorney.

According to the arrest report, the victim said she had picked up her mail and was sitting in her car talking to her husband in the 5800 block of Lincoln Street Tuesday evening when she was approached by Owens, who was on a bicycle.

Owens pointed a handgun at her and told her to open the back door of her car or he would kill her, the report said. He then jumped in the back and ordered her to drive and she started driving while he pointed a gun at her head, the report said.

The woman's husband who was still on the phone was asking what was happening but she was too afraid to tell him, the report said. The husband called 911 and officers responded to their home.

Owens took the woman's purse and cellphone and demanded she drive to an ATM, where he made her withdraw $400, the report said. He then ordered her to drive back home and called someone and told the person that the woman was doing good and that the person should meet him at the home, the report said.

The woman said when she turned onto her street she saw police cars in front of her home and she jumped out of her moving car, the report said. Owens also jumped out of the car and tried to flee on foot but was quickly caught, the report said.

"Thank God I'm alive," victim Priscilla Cercone said Wednesday. Carcone also said she had compassion for Owens' family.

"He has family I believe because nobody comes out of nothing and he probably has family and he doesn't know how his family is right now," she said.

The report said Owens is a convicted felon in Florida for robbery with a weapon.

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