A 23-year-old man was arrested last week after he was accused of punching a woman in the face and kidnapping her and her baby from a Fayetteville Walmart.
Marcus Farmer-Crane was brought back to Fayette County last Thursday after he was picked up in another jurisdiction. He had been wanted on charges of kidnapping, simple battery, reckless conduct and third-degree cruelty to children in the Sept. 21 incident outside the store on Pavillion Parkway.
Fayetteville police described the incident as a domestic disturbance but did not say how Farmer-Crane was related to the mother or the baby.
According to police, several people inside Walmart saw a man punch the woman twice and snatch the child from a shopping cart. She ran after him in an attempt to get her baby back, the witnesses said.
The witnesses called police while they ran behind the frantic mother and tried to help her, but they lost sight of them as they left the store, according to police spokeswoman Ann Marie Burdett.
A crowd gathered in the parking lot as the man tried to push the mother and her baby into a vehicle, she said.
“The female was seen to make several attempts to get out of the vehicle, but the male subject repeatedly pushed her back into the vehicle,” Burdett said. “One of the complainants stated that they told the male subject to stop. However, the subject jumped into the driver seat and sped off in the vehicle with the rear door still open.”
After running the license plate number, police determined the vehicle belonged to the victim’s mother. The woman told investigators she might know the man who kidnapped her daughter but did not provide his name, according to Burdett.
“The mother telephoned the number for the unidentified male involved in the incident,” she said. “The male answered the call and responded by stating that her daughter did not want to talk to anyone right now, and he hung up the phone.”
He was later identified as Farmer-Crane. Burdett said Thursday she did not know if the woman or her baby were injured in the incident.
Farmer-Crane is being held without bond in the Fayette County Jail.
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