Penn Hills Abduction Suspect Facing Additional Charges
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The man accused of kidnapping and beating a Penn Hills teenager is facing two new charges, and a second person is under arrest for hindering apprehension.
The airwaves were flooded with Amber Alerts after 19-year-old Jermaine Rodgers allegedly assaulted and abducted 16-year-old Marjani Aquil from a home in Penn Hills on Wednesday, but a tip from someone watching social media led police to a house in McKeesport where Rodgers was hiding with the victim.
"A woman called us and said she saw things on Facebook Live that showed him with the girl and they were at a house in McKeesport," Penn Hills Police Chief Howard Burton said.
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Much to their surprise, Aquil was the first person police encountered when they went to the house.
"McKeesport officers went to the house. They knocked on the door and the girl opened the door that we were looking for. So, very fortunate, I mean, she had been assaulted," Burton said.
Police also found a runaway juvenile from Munhall and they arrested 18-year-old Christian Peterson and charged him with hindering apprehension and obstruction of justice.
Getting Rodgers out of the house, however, was a challenge.
"After about a two-hour standoff, they went into the home and found him hiding in a coal cellar down in the basement," Burton said.
Rodgers is in jail facing a new round of charges, including aggravated assault and unlawful restraint. He was placed on probation in December for kidnapping and assaulting Aquil in 2018 and ordered to complete a batterer's intervention program and undergo a mental evaluation.
As for the victim, Burton says, "She's still in the hospital at this point in time. She has severe facial injuries and she's coming around, but she didn't want to do any interviews yet. She's just not feeling up to it."
