Arrest in Palm Beach County ends high-speed chase of vehicle possibly linked to carjacking, kidnapping
FORT LAUDERDALE - A man was in custody Friday following a high-speed chase of a vehicle that spanned several miles and matched the description of one stolen Friday morning in Fort Lauderdale.
According to Fort Lauderdale police, they were notified around 6:30 a.m. about an armed kidnapping and carjacking in the downtown area.
The driver of a white Kia Optima was near the 300 block of SW 1st Avenue when an armed man got in the passenger side and demanded he drive around.
During the two-hour carjacking, the driver was beaten by the armed man and suffered minor injuries, according to investigators. The suspect let the man out of the vehicle and he drove off with it.
Police say the details from the carjacking that happened Friday match details from an incident that happened over the weekend.
Both armed kidnappings began in the same parking lot but police have not definitively linked the incidents..
"We do not know for a fact that this incident is related or done by the same suspect," Fort Lauderdale police spokesperson Casey Liening said. "But we are investigating all possibilities. There are a lot of similar circumstances."
Police said a suspect approached a man and a woman sitting in their car in the parking lot located on SW 3rd Avenue in downtown Fort Lauderdale. After demanding the man's property, police said the suspect drove away with only the woman inside.
"At that point it became an armed kidnapping," Liening said. "And we now know that there was some other things that took place during that incident such as sexual battery. The male suspect did also physically batter the female victim."
Just like in Friday's case, the suspect drove around for two hours. He stopped at an ATM to try to withdraw the woman's cash.
It "ended near I-95, on Oakland Park Boulevard," Liening said. "The male suspect got out of the car at some point (and) the female victim contacted us, and she was treated for her injuries."
Crime stoppers is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for help identifying this suspect.
CBS News Miami is still working to confirm if the person taken into custody this afternoon is in any way related to either of the carjackings and kidnappings that originated in Downtown Fort Lauderdale or if the vehicle is even the same.
CBS News Miami reporter Morgan Rynor contributed to this report.