MIAMI SHORES, FLA. (WSVN) - Police have arrested a man accused of holding a woman at knifepoint and abducting her from a Publix supermarket in Miami Shores.
The 34-year-old victim, who did not want to reveal her identity, described the horrific ordeal.
“He kept showing me the knife so, I was like, ‘If I do something wrong, he’s gonna kill me, like stab me,'” the victim said.
The woman said the man targeted her last Wednesday while she was putting her groceries in the trunk of her car. The man forced her into her passenger seat.
“He showed me the knife inside the car and told me, ‘Do whatever I’m telling you to do,’ so I just moved to the next seat,” the woman said. “Huge knife.”
The man then took her to a nearby ATM, where she took out $300. He drove her around, then finally jumped out of the car.
“He stopped, and he told me, ‘Whenever I go down, you just keep driving as fast as you can, and don’t call the police. Don’t be stupid,'” recalled the woman.
Police said their search for the assailant took top priority. “Just think about it — women coming out by themselves, in the dark, in the shopping center — and having a knife pulled out on them, and then being abducted by being forced in the car and driven away,” said Miami Shores Police Officer David Golt. “I can’t really think of a much more egregious offense than that. This was a number one priority for our department.”
The woman said during the frightening encounter, she didn’t know if she would live or die. “It was a very bad moment. I mean, it was very scary. It was scary, and I’ve never had a knife like that in front of me,” she said.
Police ultimately arrested Samuel Pough, and they said he committed a similar crime Sunday night, attacking and kidnapping another woman.
Police said they arrested him before he was about to attack a third victim.
“We had two incidents, one on a Sunday evening and one on a Wednesday evening, and on Thursday, we were waiting for him in anticipation that he would strike again in the future,” Golt said. “We had a team set up, and when he arrived, we had multiple undercover officers in the parking lot.”
Pough remains behind bars without bond.
Police fear there may be more victims.
If you believe you may have been one of Pough’s victims, call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
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