CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A 19-year-old man has been arrested after he tied up a woman with rope and threatened her with a knife in an uptown Charlotte parking deck, police said Thursday morning.
“I’m fine,” the victim told veteran crime reporter Mark Becker. “I’m just shaken up right now.”
The attack happened around 1:30 a.m. inside the Museum Tower parking garage near the intersection of West First and West Stonewall streets.
A woman in her 20s was walking to her vehicle when the masked man walked up to her, held a knife to her throat, blindfolded her and bound her hands with a rope behind her back, CMPD said.
“When I found my car, some guy approached me from behind,” the victim told Channel 9. “He had a knife to my neck. He put a blindfold over my eyes and told me not to move or he’ll kill me.”
The victim said the knot was loose, and she managed to free herself and call 911.
“My arms are little, so I took my arm out and he realized I had taken my arm out,” the victim said. “He tried to tie me back up, but I ran and started yelling.”
Authorities found the suspect, Shamond Sellers, a few blocks away, and he was arrested.
“She gave a very, very good description of this individual,” CMPD Capt. Brad Koch said.
Sellers still had the knife and the rope used in the kidnapping when police caught up with him.
Officers arrested Sellers and charged him with attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon, first-degree kidnapping and communicating threats.
The victim said she was scared Sellers would sexually assault her.
“I think that’s what he wanted,” she said. “He didn’t want anything else. I think that’s what he wanted.”
Channel 9 has confirmed that Sellers is a student at Johnson and Wales University and that he’s been suspended and banned from campus.
Police said that as scary as the attack was, it very unusual in uptown and they were thankful that the victim reacted so quickly.
Cox Media Group
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