St Mary’s College boy escapes 3 kidnappers

WITH A brown paper bag over his face, 16-year-old Marcus Williams yesterday morning fiddled with a car door lock until he got the right opportunity to jump out of a heavily-tinted moving black B13 Nissan Sentra vehicle, escaping three kidnappers in the process. Williams, a Fourth Form student of the St Mary’s College, eventually made his dash to freedom in the vicinity of Northern Hardware, Diego Martin Main Road. The student then made his way to the Four Roads Police Station and recounted to police officers there the near three-hour ordeal he had gone through. The teenager, son of businessman Noel Williams, owner of Williams Printery Service, was then picked up from the station by acting Supt Henry Millington and other members of the Anti Kidnapping Squad (AKS).

He gave a statement and was then taken to his Ninth Street, Barataria, home where he told shocked family members about the incident.  “All this time I thought he was in lessons,” his stunned-looking mother, Julie, told Sunday Newsday from their home. It was around 9.30 am yesterday that Williams left to go to Prestige Living Centre, where he has been doing part-time lessons for over one year. About 20 feet from the entrance to his destination on Sixth Street, police said a black B13 Nissan Sentra vehicle, in which there were three occupants, pulled alongside him. One of the three kidnappers opened one of the car doors pretending that one of them was about to alight. However, that man grabbed Williams by his white jersey and pulled him into the back seat. “Don’t give any trouble and you won’t get hurt,” Williams said one of them told him.  They then placed a brown paper bag over his face, after which they drove to El Socorro and stopped there for about 15 minutes.

Williams said the men threw what he believed were guns into the vehicle.  “They were heavy and metal,” he recalled the sound of the drop of the items. The kidnappers then left El Socorro and made their way into the West.  While driving, Williams, still with the brown paper bag covering his face, began fiddling with the lock and when the car slowed, jumped to freedom.  He got to the Four Roads Police Station around midday yesterday.
At his home yesterday, Williams told Sunday Newsday that the vehicle did not stop after he jumped to freedom.  “They were driving around cool, cool, cool,” he said. Not wanting to speak much on the incident, Williams said two of the three kidnappers were in the front of the vehicle, while a slim-built one was in the back with him. “All this time he was in danger and we believed he was at lessons,” Julie said. She added that Williams always said he would put up a fight if he ever found himself in a situation like that. Julie also said that she has often warned her children to be careful of kidnappers, but that she is in no position to prevent them from walking the streets. His father, who also did not want to speak much, told Sunday Newsday that he is just happy to have his son home safe. “That’s important,” the elder Williams said. No arrests had been made up to late evening and officers of the Anti Kidnapping Squad, headed by Snr Supt Gilbert Reyes and Barataria/El Socorro Police officers are continuing investigations into the attempted kidnapping.