The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office says they’ve arrested a man wanted for kidnapping who has a long criminal history.
Sergeant Spencer Gross with the sheriff’s office says on Sunday night, Johnny Wise, 27, of Largo, got into a fight with his ex-girlfriend, Jasmine Golden, at her home on 125th Street.
Gross says Wise broke out all of the windows in the home, threatened Golden and then drove off with her 2-year-old child.
Detectives say Golden’s father-in-law saw what was happening and tried to follow Wise in his pickup truck.
Wise saw that he was being followed, put his car into reverse and slammed into the pickup.
He then fled on foot and was able to escape deputies arriving at the scene.
“We didn’t know what his intent was with the child, what he was going to do with the child or to the child, so that was a major concern,” said Gross.
Fortunately, family members were able to convince Wise to turn over the child.
“He had made contact with a family member of the child’s mother and had released the child safely to that family member, luckily for us and luckily for them, because this could have been a really bad situation,” said Gross.
Detectives were finally able to locate Wise on Thursday evening and arrested him.
He is now facing kidnapping and a variety of other charges.
