JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (WSVN) — Body camera footage from police captured the takedown of a registered sex offender and the rescue of a kidnapped boy.
The high-speed police pursuit turned into a rescue mission south of Jacksonville after deputies pulled over a pickup truck following a call reporting suspicious activity.
When checking the truck, police found a registered sex offender and two boys.
The driver was 60-year-old Darnell Hairston, and one of the two boys was reported missing three days earlier, out of St. Johns County in Jacksonville.
Deputies said that the child was terrified, telling them that he had been kidnapped and did not think he would survive.
Detectives said that the 11-year-old described being choked unconscious, threatened with a knife and a gun, tied up, and hidden on the floorboard of the truck for days.
“He then told us his real name, whereas he had been told to give a false name to the deputies by Harston, and told us that he was afraid he was going to be killed that night, and then told us what had happened,” said Sheriff Rick Staly.
As police tried to take Hairston into custody, investigators said that he ran, and while they were chasing him, the second boy in the truck took off.
The dangerous chase ended when the teen rammed a patrol car, sending both vehicles into the woods.
“Take a seat, take a seat! Vehicles are upside down on the wooden line. Sheriff’s office, let me see your hands!” said an officer
“Yo, you put me in here,” responded the boy.
“Turn around!! Get down on your face. Get down in your face, get down on your face,” responded the officer.
The teen now faces multiple charges, and investigators said he may have helped plan the kidnapping.
Hairston now faces multiple felony charges, including kidnapping and aggravated child abuse, and is being held without bond.
Authorities say the rescued child was safely recovered.
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