EPPD: Man arrested for kidnapping mom, daughter at mall parking lot

EL PASO, Texas ( KTSM ) – A 52-year-old man was arrested after he kidnapped a 26-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter at the Cielo Vista Mall parking lot and then forced the woman to drive him to the bank and withdraw money, according to the El Paso Police Department (EPPD).

Victor Hugo Escobedo, 52, is facing a charge of aggravated robbery and two counts of aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon, police said. He was booked into the El Paso County Detention Center under bonds totaling $550,000.

EPPD said at 12:05 p.m. Sept. 6 officers responded to a reported kidnapping at Cielo Vista Mall. When officers arrived, they met with a 26-year-old victim who said she had been approached by an unknown man in the parking lot of Cielo Vista Mall just after she had put her 2-year-old daughter in the rear car seat.

Crimes Against Persons detectives arrived at the scene for further investigation.

The victim said the man, later identified as Escobedo, displayed a black-and-yellow handgun and told her to get in her truck.

The man then forced the victim to drive to a bank and “in fear for her life and her daughter’s life,” the victim went inside the bank and made a withdrawal while the man stayed in the vehicle with the victim’s daughter, according to EPPD.

When the victim returned, the man made her drive him back to the Cielo Vista Mall parking lot.

The man took the victim’s money and her phone and fled the scene, according to EPPD.

EPPD is asking the public if they have any further information on this incident to call the non-emergency line at (915) 832-4400 or to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers of El Paso at (915) 566-8477 (TIPS).

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