(StraightNews.org) – Two men have been arrested in Delaware for kidnapping a 1-year-old child during a carjacking. The child was found in Philadelphia on November 29, the same day of the kidnapping, and was unharmed. Randy Purnell and Arron Douglas, both from Delaware, were charged with one count of second-degree felony kidnapping, one count of motor vehicle theft, one count of first-degree conspiracy, and one misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child.
New Castle County Police responded to a stolen vehicle report at a 7-Eleven outlet in Newark, Delaware, on the morning of November 29. The two suspects allegedly jumped into a Nissan Altima with the toddler and fled the scene. A witness in Philadelphia told police that one of the suspects asked him to hold the child and then sped away, leaving her outside a liquor store in the city.
A police press release stated, “Members of the Philadelphia Police Department responded to the scene and later transported the child to a local hospital to be evaluated.” The stolen car was located in Kensington, and both suspects are now awaiting extradition to Delaware.
Carjacking is one of America’s fastest-growing crimes, and figures have tripled in some cities since 2020. Statistics furthermore show that the crime is increasingly committed by teenagers, or even children as young as ten years old. In Chicago, a group of kids aged from 10 to 17 stole 16 cars in 2020, and in Washington, DC, a year later, a 15-year-old was arrested for five counts of armed carjacking.
In November, an FBI agent was carjacked in the nation’s capital, and figures showed the offense had increased there by 104% in a year. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas said he encountered three armed assailants near Capitol Hill who stole his car but did not physically harm him. In the same month, Secret Service agents opened fire on attempted carjackers who tried to steal a vehicle carrying President Biden’s granddaughter. Nobody was harmed.
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