HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Homestead police arrested a man Wednesday after they said he held a mother at gunpoint while she was walking home with her 4-year-old son.
The incident began when the victim, who police said was walking to her apartment building in the 200 block of Northwest Second Avenue, noticed a man loitering in the area at around 12:15 p.m.
Moments later, the man, identified by police as 21-year-old Osbaldo Marin Ortiz, pulled out a gun and demanded the woman’s cellphone, a black Samsung Galaxy 5, while speaking to her in Spanish, according to his arrest report.
Police said Ortiz also searched the victim for additional belongings, placing his hand inside the collar of her dress.
Fearing for her son’s safety, the victim pleaded with Ortiz not to take her house keys, the report states.
Police said Ortiz then directed her to return to her home while holding her at gunpoint.
Instead, she went to a friend’s home and sought help, according to the report.
Ortiz then fled the scene when he noticed her knocking on the neighbor’s door, police said.
Detectives said they later reviewed surveillance footage from the area and identified a moped resembling one seen at the scene of the robbery.
Officers used Flock, a safety application, to track a similar moped traveling westbound on Southwest Eighth Street.
Police said they eventually located the moped near Southwest 336th Street and Southwest Fifth Avenue in Florida City.
Ortiz, who was wearing clothing matching the victim’s description of the suspect, attempted to discard a gun on a nearby lawn before he was taken into custody, police said.
During the arrest, officers conducted a search on Ortiz and said they found the victim’s cellphone.
Authorities said Ortiz was read his Miranda rights and was taken into custody.
He denied the allegations, according to investigators.
A records check revealed that Ortiz is a convicted felon and that the gun he discarded had been reported stolen to the Florida City Police Department, according to authorities.
Jail records show Ortiz is facing two counts of kidnapping and one count each of armed robbery with a deadly weapon, illegal use of a firearm while committing a felony, child abuse without great bodily harm, illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and third-degree grand theft with a firearm.
As of Thursday, he was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where his bond was listed as “to be set.”
Copyright 2024 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.
