Fort Worth Police Searching For Car Jacking Suspect
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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - On Monday afternoon, sidewalks where children normally play in a quiet Haltom City neighborhood were lined with patrol vehicles.
Fort Worth Police were on the trail of 36-year-old Fidel Martinez, a man they consider very dangerous.
Investigators say they had been doing surveillance on Martinez for a parole violation in relation to an auto theft. When they tried to approach Martinez, police say he gave chase. They followed the suspect into Haltom City, where they say he dumped his car and tried to hide.
A passenger that had been traveling with Martinez fled but didn't get very far. Police took him into custody at the scene.
"Can I hide here for a bit, some people are chasing me?," the suspect allegedly asked a teenager after walking in through an unlocked door. The wary teen called his grandfather over. "I'll call the police for you," offered Vern Bult, the teen's grandfather. Bult happens to be the neighborhood watchman. He noticed the suspect looked nervous. The red flag for him was that the suspect refused to let Bult call the police.
When Bult did not let him use his phone, Martinez took off running. Two doors over, the wanted man, allegedly found a getaway vehicle.
"He said give me your keys I need your keys. He physically approached her and shook her," says Holly Stallcup. Stallcup explains she and her roommate Allison Cornell were cleaning out the Honda Odyssey van Cornell borrowed from her parents. They were getting ready to take it on a trip to Memphis in the morning.
"Allison fought back a little bit but he got the keys away and he got into the car," Stallcup says.
Cornell was not injured but felt very shaken up. She watched as the man sped away in her parent's van.
The roommates vowed not to let the suspects actions alter their plans. "We don't have to be scared. Bad things happen. But it doesn't mean our neighborhood is bad. It doesn't mean our city is bad. It just means a bad person came into our neighborhood and did something bad," Stallcup says.
Martinez has a lengthy criminal history which includes several theft charges. Police believe he could be traveling in a silver 2007 Honda Odyssey with Texas License Plate CPG5371.
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