Good Samaritan helps kidnapped woman
A man accused of kidnapping his ex-girlfriend was arrested a day after she escaped with help from a stranger at a gas station.
Gilberto Lara, 53, has been charged with aggravated kidnapping. His bail is set at $100,000.
Lara’s ex-girlfriend had left him because of physical abuse, an affidavit supporting his arrest states. He had reportedly been sending her text messages saying that he would “shoot up” her parents’ house if she did not go back to him.
On Wednesday evening, the woman, 40, was in the kitchen of a North Side home where she had been staying.
At some point, Lara rushed into the kitchen with a machete and cornered her. He began hitting her head and back with the side of the machete, the affidavit states.
He then withdrew a gun, aimed it at her head and pushed
her out through the house’s front door, the woman told police. He threatened to kill her dog if she ran, investigators said.
Lara told her not to cause a scene as he shoved her into his car, police said.
Then, as they left the home, Lara’s vehicle ran out of gas, the affidavit states. He pulled into a gas station, which was not identified in the affidavit, and tried to calm the woman.
He also told her that “it wasn’t over and it was going to be a lot worse,” the affidavit states, and that he was going to go through her phone.
The woman asked Lara to get her a soda so that he would walk to the back of the store, police said.
While he was inside, the woman got out of the vehicle and into a nearby one.
She told the driver that she had just been kidnapped and begged him to take her to her parents’ house, according to police. The man sped away and let the woman use his phone to call 911.
Investigators said she had a laceration to her left collarbone, scratches on her right arm and bruising to her left arm.