Police Identify Kidnapping Suspect Who Held 8 People Hostage, Barricaded In An Oak Park Home
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Police identified the kidnapping suspect who barricaded himself in a home with his 13-year-old victim and seven other hostages as 27-year-old Eric Leyva.
Leyva was detained Wednesday afternoon after barricading himself in a home for nearly 24-hours. He was booked at the main jail for kidnapping. Police say detectives are investigating this case and additional charges are pending.
Sacramento police say the incident began at approximately 10:30 a.m. Tuesday when reports came in about a domestic violence incident on Cabrillo Way. Officers contacted the victim, who sustained non-life-threatening injuries, and determined a domestic assault occurred.
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The suspect was not at the scene when officers arrived, so they began searching for him. At 4 p.m., police say officers located the suspect in a vehicle in South Sacramento, but the vehicle drove away when officers tried to pull it over. This prompted a slow-speed pursuit that ended on Mello Court.
Twenty minutes later, the suspect got out of the vehicle on the passenger side, holding a 13-year-old girl hostage with a firearm. He then went into a random home occupied by seven people on Mello Court with the victim.
Police detained the driver of the truck and interviewed him, but did not arrest him for the incident.
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SWAT and Crisis Negotiation Teams responded to the scene to communicate with the suspect. Overnight, six hostages were released while the suspect remained in the home, armed, with the 13-year-old victim and an adult female.
At 8:14 a.m., the two remaining hostages escaped the home and were taken safely away from the scene as the suspect remained in the home. None of the hostages were hurt, police said.
Still, the suspect remained in the house and refused to get out. SWAT determined where the suspect was hiding and deployed a chemical agent in that part of the house. Police say the suspect immediately surrendered and was arrested without injury.