OCOEE, Fla. – The father of a 2-year-old boy who police said was kidnapped spoke to News 6 about the frightening ordeal.
Richard Strong's son was kidnapped, according to the Ocoee Police Department, when Jemoy Gordon, 26, battered and carjacked Strong's wife at Good Homes Plaza on Friday.
Richard Strong said he was at work Friday morning when his wife called his phone repeatedly.
"I never heard such distress from my wife," Strong said. "(She said), 'Someone has took the car' and my son was in the car. I couldn't. I was speechless."
Strong left work immediately to be there for his wife, and comforted her while they waited for their son's safe return.
"It's the unknown, at that point in time. I just wanted my son to be safe," Strong said.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued an Amber Alert and all nearby agencies were on the lookout for 2-year-old Nasir and the family's 2004 Oldsmobile Alero.
About an hour later, Strong said that an officer told them that their son had been found safe.
"That waiting and hoping my son was safe was like, it was like, forever," Strong said.
Gordon was arrested at the scene and went before an Orange County judge on Monday. He faces charges of kidnapping, carjacking and battery.
Strong said he wishes he would have been with his wife and son at the time, wanting to protect them from harm's way.
Strong also said despite the frightening moments for little Nasir, he was quickly smiling and making the officers laugh.
“He was giving everyone high fives and, you know, he was back to his normal self," Strong said.
Ocoee police said Gordon attacked Strong's wife from behind, and she eventually lost consciousness during the struggle. In their report, officers wrote that the victim told the suspect several times that the little boy was in the back seat, before he took off with the child and vehicle.