A man has been charged in the attempted kidnapping of a Pizza Hut employee on Broad Street late Tuesday night.
Christopher B. Swafford, 22, was charged with aggravated robbery and attempted aggravated kidnapping.
Police said the incident occurred around 11:15 p.m. outside the Pizza Hut at 3505 Broad.
The victim told police she was attempting to get into her truck and leave work. She noticed an unknown white male approaching her. He grabbed her and ordered her into the truck. She said she struggled with him, and he became more violent and began striking her with his fists.
She continued to struggle and at one point even bit the man. He then became enraged and started strangling her with a cable cord. At that point she threw her car keys across the parking lot. The suspect ran to get the keys, and she ran back inside the restaurant.
Police said the incident had been watched by a witness who remembered seeing a state trooper at the Winn Dixie on St. Elmo Avenue. The witness returned to the Winn Dixie and brought the state trooper back to the scene. The trooper arrived just as the suspect was attempting to leave in the victim’s stolen truck.
The trooper ordered the suspect out of the truck at gunpoint. The suspect then jumped out of the truck and fled on foot. The trooper chased after him and caught him at the Krystal. He was taken into custody there at the Krystal on Broad Street.
When the suspect jumped and ran from the truck, it rolled back into the old Bi-Lo parking lot. While the truck was unoccupied with no one around, three unknown black males approached the truck and took the victim’s purse from the front seat, according to a witness.
It is believed that the two incidents were unrelated, other than having the same victim. The three male parties fled on foot and are still at large.
The victim, Jennifer Ross, was treated and released from Erlanger Hospital.