Knife-wielding man ties woman with rope in uptown. Screams, 911 call lead to arrest.
A woman was bound with rope by a knife-wielding masked man in an uptown Charlotte parking deck early Thursday, and police credit her screams and 91l call for the quick arrest of a 19-year-old suspect.
The victim was returning to her car just before 1 a.m. in the Mint Museum Tower Parking Garage near West 1st and West Stonewall streets when she was attacked, police said.
The assailant “held a knife to her throat, blindfolded her and bound her hands behind her back with rope,” according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department news release.
The woman, who is in her 20s, screamed, eventually freed herself from the rope and got into her car to call for help, police said.
The assailant ran away after the woman screamed, CMPD Capt. Brad Koch said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
The victim “gave phenomenal information” about the suspect when she called 911, and police spotted a suspect on cameras nearby and arrested Shamond Sellers, all within 10 minutes, Koch said.
“He still had the knife on him,” the police captain told reporters.
The assailant tried to rob her, the victim told police, but got away with none of her belongings.
The woman doesn’t live in the apartments above the museum and had to walk around searching for her car. That may have prompted the suspect to think he could rob her, Koch said.
“It’s so rare that we have something that happens like this,” Koch told reporters. “However, with the really hard work, the really diligent work of our officers,” and the detailed description the victim gave of her attacker, Central Division officers quickly made an arrest, he said.
Police interviewed Sellers and arrested him on charges of attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon, first-degree kidnapping and communicating threats.
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 3:55 PM.