Teen abducted from Penn Hills home found safe in McKeesport
A teenager from Penn Hills was found injured late Wednesday and her ex-boyfriend was charged with kidnapping her after a threehour SWAT standoff at a McKeesport home.
A second girl who had been reported missing also was in the home, according to Allegheny County Police. Her identity was not released.
Jermaine Laquay Rodgers, 19, of East Pittsburgh, is accused of kidnapping 16-year-old Marjani Aquil, from her home on Glenbrook Drive in Penn Hills about 3:15 p.m. Wednesday.
After issuing an Amber Alert, authorities received a tip that Rodgers was in a house on 28th Street in McKeesport. Police approached the residence just before midnight, and when the door opened, they were able to grab Marjani and take her to safety.
She had suffered facial injuries and was treated at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
When others in the house refused to come out, officers requested help from the county SWAT team. Eventually, two people left the home — the second missing girl, and an 18-year-old man, Christian Peterson, who will be charged with obstruction of justice and hindering a prosecution, according to county police.
Then officers entered the house and found an armed Rodgers hiding in a coal cellar, police said.
According to a criminal complaint, after Rodgers forced his way into Marjani’s home Wednesday afternoon, he knocked her to the ground and demanded that cameras and an alarm system in the home be shut off. A witness — another juvenile — ran out the front door, police said.
The witness said Rodgers forced Marjani into a car, which appeared to contain another person, according to the complaint. Rodgers, armed with a pistol, threatened the witness and demanded that she get into the car, too, but she refused, police said.
About midnight, a tipster saw Rodgers and Marjani in a Facebook Live video from the home in McKeesport and called Penn Hills police, Chief Howard Burton said.
“We didn’t see any of that [Facebook video] at all. We just got a phone call from someone who did see it,” the chief said.
It was the second time that Rodgers has been accused of kidnapping Marjani, who is the niece of pro wrestler and Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle of Mt. Lebanon.
Penn Hills police in January 2018 accused him of holding Marjani against her will for four days in Wilkinsburg.
At the time, she told officers he forced her into a vehicle, punched her in the face and head and took her to an apartment. He took her cellphone so she couldn’t call for help, according to a criminal complaint, which did not say how Marjani escaped.
The complaint noted that Marjani had swollen, black eyes, a bite mark on her leg and bruises on her arm and face after she got away from Rodgers. He was charged with kidnapping, terroristic threats, simple assault, stalking and other offenses.
In December, all the charges were withdrawn as part of a plea deal except for the counts of terroristic threats and simple assault. Rodgers pleaded guilty to those crimes and was sentenced to probation, according to court records.
Rodgers was being held at the Allegheny County Jail. A preliminary hearing on the new charges is set for Jan. 28.