ORLANDO, Fla. – A man who had been using crack-cocaine all day grabbed his estranged wife from the home they once shared, forced her into his truck and threatened to kill her, according to the Orlando Police Department.
Officers received a call around 2:40 p.m. Tuesday asking them to investigate a residential area on Split Willow Drive.
Deborah Smith said she was outside doing yard work when she saw Robert Lee Carter, 63, fighting with the victim, so she grabbed a stick and told him to leave the woman alone.
“I had my stick, and I said, ’take your (expletive) hands off of her,’” she said. “At this time, she’s in panic mode. Her eyes were looking like, ’you got to help me.’”
“He grabbed me, and the truck was parked right there, and I told him, ’please leave me alone. I don’t want to go. I’m not feeling good, please,’” said Lorraine Gibson, the man’s estranged wife.
She told News 6 she was forced inside his truck.
She said he pinned her and climbed over her to get back behind the wheel and drove away.
“Call 911. Kidnapping. Call 911. I said it about eight times,” Smith said.
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Smith told News 6 she and another neighbor were able to provide a description of Carter and his truck, and they also followed him in their vehicles until he traveled the wrong way down a road.
Orlando police said they spotted Carter’s truck by Shader Road and John Young Parkway. After an authorized pursuit, they caught up to the vehicle at Smith Street and Edgewater Drive in the College Park neighborhood. Photos of the scene revealed at least six police units were present.
“If I was in trouble -- if it was my sister, my mother -- I would want someone to save their life, so that they could live another day,” Smith said.
After Carter was arrested, police said the victim told them that she and Carter are married but he’s been living at a separate residence.
She said he kicked in the front door since he doesn’t have a key, grabbed her from the home and put her in his truck all while she screamed and tried to fight him off, records show.
Carter is also accused of making threats to kill the victim during the incident.
Gibson was eventually able to jerk the steering wheel and put the car into park as patrol cars were following it, effectively bringing the pursuit to an end, according to the affidavit.
Carter said he’d been using crack-cocaine that whole day and that he fled from law enforcement because he had a warrant on charges of domestic violence and battery on a pregnant person, records show.
Carter is facing charges of kidnapping (domestic violence), burglary of an occupied dwelling, battery and fleeing and eluding.