WEEKEND CRIME
Police arrest youth in Kenmore kidnapping
Published: November 18, 2009, 12:30 am
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A 17-year-old youth was arrested Tuesday morning on charges of kidnapping two Kenmore roommates over the weekend.
Detectives are looking for a second known suspect.
Acting on a tip late Monday, South District officers found Errol Fowler-Graham, 17, in the attic of a relative’s home in the Bailey-Clinton area.
He later was charged with kidnapping, robbery and unauthorized use of a vehicle, and other charges are pending, Buffalo police said.
“We are applying for an arrest warrant for two persons,” Kenmore Police Chief Carl LaCorte said Tuesday, while refusing to elaborate.
Two assailants, armed with a knife and a handgun, carjacked one of the roommates in North Buffalo late Saturday and drove to her apartment, where they awakened her roommate at knifepoint, Kenmore police said.
The two kidnappers blindfolded the women, drove to at least two ATMs for money, then dropped the women back at the North Buffalo location and kept the carjacked vehicle.
Buffalo and Kenmore police got their first break about noon Monday, when Buffalo officers spotted the stolen car, with its Massachusetts plates, on Broadway near the Broadway Market. Officers watched the vehicle until a man and a woman approached.
“They got into the vehicle, and Buffalo police immediately blocked the path of the car,” La-Corte said.
The man fled on foot, but the woman was taken in for questioning.
That was the first of two breaks that led to the arrest.
“When police located the car Monday afternoon, that was a big step forward,” Buffalo police spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge said. “Secondly, police got a tip last night of [the first suspect’s] whereabouts.”
One woman suffered a scratch on her face and a cut on her hand, police said. The other woman apparently was not injured.
“It’s a shocking crime, but it’s an isolated incident,” LaCorte said. “It would appear that the young lady was picked at random [when she was] carjacked in Buffalo.”
Fowler-Graham, who already had criminal cases pending in both Erie County Court and in Yonkers downstate, is being held in lieu of $75,000 bail.
News Staff Reporter Matt Gryta contributed to this report. gwarner@buffnews.com
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