Police arrest man seen abandoning toddler after Broward carjacking
FORT LAUDERDALE - A man has been arrested after allegedly carjacking a vehicle with a 3-year-old girl still inside and later abandoning the toddler on an Oakland Park sidewalk, a moment that was caught on video last week.
The Broward Sheriff's Office said an anonymous tip led them to 35-year-old Willio Petioma.
On June 26th, around 8:30 a.m., the BSO's Special Victims Unit was called out to a report of a stolen vehicle at 850 W. Commercial Blvd.
During the investigation, detectives learned that a mother and her daughter were involved in a car crash with another driver in the area. When the mother got out of her car to exchange information with the other driver, who the sheriff's office identified as Petioma, he jumped into her vehicle, police said.
Investigators said the woman grabbed onto the front passenger door of her car and yelled to the man that her daughter was still inside. She was dragged along with it for a short distance before falling to the ground as the man drove off.
Detectives found surveillance video that captured several moments following the crash. In the first video, the man is seen jumping out of the woman's car, taking the child in her car seat out, and abandoning her on a sidewalk.
In the second video, he's seen abandoning the car nearby. The man was also caught on camera using the woman's credit card at a Family Dollar store.
Petioma faces charges that include kidnapping, carjacking, interfering with custody of a minor, and illegal use of a credit card. He was also arrested on a Palm Beach County warrant for possession of cocaine and resisting an officer.
