CLEVELAND, Ohio — A 34-year-old man was arrested Saturday after being accused of kidnapping family members, assaulting them and holding them in his father’s basement, police said.
The Cleveland FBI and Cleveland police conducted a welfare check Saturday afternoon, at the request of Willoughby police, at his residence on East 12th Street in downtown Cleveland to see if anyone was in his apartment, Willoughby police Det. James Schultz said in a news release. Several neighboring apartments were evacuated by the Cleveland Bomb Squad as a precautionary measure, according to the release from the Willoughby Police Department.
Charges were not formally filed as of Saturday night, Schultz said, but police say the man will be charged with kidnapping.
The man planned to have dinner at his father’s home at approximately 7 p.m. Friday at his Green Circle home in Willoughby, the news release said.
The man, who has an education and background in biology, lured his 72-year-old father into the basement where he assaulted him with chloroform, the news release said. The man bound and gagged his father and left the home to get his 65-year-old mother at her home on Shepard’s Glen in Willoughby.
He convinced his mother to come to his father’s home because of an unknown problem. While at his father’s home, he assaulted his mother and handcuffed her to a support post in the basement, the news release said.
The accused kidnapper then got his 59-year-old aunt in Willowick and also took her to his father’s home. He assaulted his aunt and handcuffed her to the same post as his mother, the news release said.
The man’s aunt escaped and said she called 911. He fled the scene.
The aunt then locked the doors to the house and called 911 just before 11:30 p.m.
Police and fire personnel treated the victims for injuries to their arms and legs, the news release said.
Officers found tools and items, including handcuffs and zip-ties, in his father’s basement.
After searching for the man, he was found at 4 a.m. in an Eastlake parking lot sleeping in his blue 2007 Chevy HHR, the news release said.
He was arrested and taken to the Willoughby Police Department for questioning.
Willougby police recently contacted the Painesville Division of the FBI in reference to an incident that happened Monday at a Regal Cinemas.
Police were called at 5:15 p.m. on a report of a suspicious man. The man asked employees when the busiest time at the theater is and the most popular movie, the news release said. The man left the theater in a vehicle employees described that was similar to the Chevy HHR.
Police believe the man accused of kidnapping family members was the man at the theater, according to the news release.
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