Published Sunday, January 13, 2002

3 storm home, kidnap man in Weston

Link

BY ANA RHODES, arhodes@herald.com

Yelling ``give me the money,'' three masked men with guns forced their way into a home in a gated community in Weston early Saturday and abducted a 31-year-old paraplegic man.

Broward Sheriff's Office deputies were searching into the night for three suspects who ransacked the home, tied up three adults and fled with Christopher Bailey at 4 a.m. . No description of the vehicle was immediately available.

``This individual was abducted from his home,'' BSO spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said Saturday night. ``We feel he is in immediate danger. Our focus is on finding him before he is harmed.'' BSO released Bailey's picture and sought the public's help in locating him.

Simone Stewart, 26, the victim's sister, was one of the people left bound in the house. She told police she pleaded with the abductors not to take the wheelchair-bound Bailey.

``She asked them to take her instead of him because he's a paraplegic,'' Coleman-Wright said. ``They literally dragged him out of the house.'' The wheelchair was left behind.

Two of the abductors had island accents, Coleman-Wright said, adding [that] Bailey is Jamaican. The victims said the suspects threatened their lives if they called deputies. They said they would be watching them. Coleman-Wright said Stewart waited four hours -- until about 8 a.m. -- to call police because she feared the men would return. The invaders took no valuables from the home, police said.

Stewart lives at 16523 Sapphire in the Emerald Estates development. It was unknown how the men got into the development. A guard is posted at the front gate 24 hours a day. A back entrance is gated, but not guarded.

Coleman-Wright said detectives would be checking to see if the video surveillance cameras from both entrances captured a picture of the suspects or their car.

``Statistically in law enforcement, most home invasion robberies are not random,'' she said. ``They are usually looking for something -- should it be drugs or money.''

Inside the home were Stewart's two children, a 7-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy, who were asleep. They were unharmed. Bailey's girlfriend, Joan Strickland, 36, and Chris Johnson, who had been living in the house about a month, were awakened and tied along with Stewart. The suspects then ransacked the home.

After the abductors left, Stewart, Strickland and Johnson were able to free themselves. They told police they jumped into a car and went looking for the abductors. They found nothing. All but Johnson returned to the home.

Stewart said she had gone out at that early hour to move her car because she had illegally parked it across the street. When she returned to the front door, the masked men, who were hiding in the bushes, approached and forced their way inside, Coleman-Wright said.

Bailey was paralyzed in a 1997 drive-by shooting in Sunrise. He was shot multiple times. Coleman-Wright said there appeared to be no evidence linking the abduction and the five-year-old shooting, which was random.

Anyone with information about the abduction is asked to call BSO at 954-765-4321 or CrimeStoppers at 954-493-TIPS.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002