Police arrest suspect on charges of kidnapping, assault

Police have arrested a suspect on charges of kidnapping and assault of a man who said he was captured about 8:40 p.m. on New Year’s Day while walking to a market in Stanfield to buy milk for his child.

A Pinal County Sheriff’s Office Deputy took Jose Angel Hernandez Ramos, 27, of Stanfield, into custody Jan. 3 after the victim escaped and called 911 from a pay phone at the Burnt Bun Café on Highway 84. He directed them to the home where he said he’d been held captive since Tuesday in the 400 Block of North Cherry Lane.

While being held, the man told police he had been tied up and pistol whipped. The men who held him repeatedly spoke to him in Spanish accusing him of having previously cut them off while driving.

“The suspect hit him in the face several times,” said Mike Minter, a spokesman for the PCSO, adding that the responding deputy called an ambulance which responded and treated and released the victim, who refused further medical attention.

The responding deputy wrote in his report that the man “appeared distraught, his lip was swollen and he had dried blood on the front of his shirt,” and that he “complained of pain to the face, back and chest.”

Minter added that “they thought it was a guy who slammed on his breaks in front of him and such, and had also tried to take money from him.”

The man, whose age and name are being withheld under victim’s rights privileges, told police in Spanish that he did not know what the men were referring to, and that it had all started as he was walking east on Meadowview Lane when a gray van pulled up along side him.

Four Hispanic males jumped out surrounding him and asked for $50, to which he replied he did not, the deputy said the man reported.

The suspect began to punch him with closed fists in the face and on the arms, according to a police report, before pulling him into a van. Once inside, they blindfolded him and tied his wrists together behind his back with a rope.

The man further told police that while he was tied up he could hear about seven people in the residence, all of whom were speaking Spanish, and who mentioned the name “Jose” numerous times.

Minter said the incident is under investigation and there will likely be more arrests of those who participated in the kidnapping and assault.

Information regarding whether Ramos has a previous arrest record was not immediately available, Minter said. He could not also verify whether the victim is a resident of Stanfield or if he was visiting.

Photo submitted by the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office