MIDVALE, Utah, July 23, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — Police have arrested a parole fugitive Monday morning in connection with the carjacking of a vehicle with two children inside Sunday afternoon.
Unified Police Department officials said Charles Brandon Peterson, 39, is facing two counts of kidnapping and one count of vehicle theft.
Peterson was located in Salt Lake City Monday morning, officials said, though the circumstances surrounding his arrest were not immediately made public.
Officials said Peterson has been booked into the Utah State Prison for a violation of his parole.
The theft occurred from the parking lot of Harts Gas Station at 335 W. 7200 South at approximately 3 p.m., Unified Police Department Sgt. Melody Gray told Gephardt Daily.
“The parents had gone inside and left their 13-year-old and a four-month-old infant inside that vehicle,” Gray said. “Our suspect walked across the street, got into the vehicle, and drove away. The 13-year-old, who was located in the backseat, was yelling at him, telling him to let them go and he needed to stop. She actually started punching the suspect.”
The suspect then pulled into a parking lot of another business about a mile away at 6885 S. State Street. He then got out of the vehicle and fled southwest on foot, Gray said.
A containment area was set up to find the suspect, but he was not located until the next morning.
The 13-year-old girl, who has been identified as Josslyn Millam, told Gephardt Daily: “I was just sitting in the parking lot of the gas station, my mom asked me to feed my baby sister because she was hungry, and the guy just got in the car and started driving away. As he was like halfway out in the street I rolled down the window and I stuck my head out of the window and I started screaming for help then I called the cops. I asked him to take me back to my mom, my mom needs my baby sister, then he just looked me in the eyes and I started hitting him in the side of the head and the face, and he said ‘Sorry, I won’t hurt you’ and ‘Sorry, I’ll take you back,’ then he pulled in here and left.”
She said that she was afraid the man would hurt her and the baby. She added that she thought the suspect may not have known that she and the infant were in the car, as they were both in the backseat, and she was leaning down towards her sister.
She said the keys were left in the vehicle.
Gephardt Daily will have more on this story as information is made available.
I think josslyn Milam is a hero she saved her and her baby sister’s life Sunday one of man Charles Brandon Peterson kidnapped and carjacked their car she is a hero and she needs to be showing that she’s a hero and I hope everybody out there knows how proud I am of her because I am her grandmother and I would have had a rough time if I lost them both so just remember she is a hero and she deserve something for this
On Sunday July 22nd my two granddaughters were in the back seat of a car when Charles Brandon Peterson carjacked their car and kidnap them he terrified my granddaughters josslyn Milam is a hero she needs to be shown that she is a hero and let everybody out there no that that little girl wet through a lot to protect her and her baby sister I am very proud of my granddaughter today and she deserves to be recognized