CLAYTON, Mo. — A Fenton man has been charged after police say he kidnapped his wife and two young children at gunpoint over the weekend and drove them around the St. Louis area while making food deliveries.
The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office has charged Jaquan Banks, a 26-year-old Fenton man, with two counts of second-degree kidnapping and one count of armed criminal action.
According to the Clayton Police Department, officers received a report just before 8 p.m. Sunday that a woman was being held against her will in the area of N. Central Avenue and Forsyth Boulevard.
They arrived to find the victim and two young children inside Banks' car. She told police that on Saturday she had been kidnapped from a Collinsville residence at gunpoint and forced into his car with the children. He then drove her to Berkeley, Missouri, where she said he physically and sexually assaulted her.
The woman said Banks then drove them around the region as he delivered food orders, telling her he planned to earn enough money to flee the state with her and the children. While he was picking up an order in Clayton, the woman shared her location with a Division of Family Services caseworker, who then called the East Central Dispatch Center and reported the crime.
Officers found Banks inside the nearby restaurant Sushi Ai and arrested him without incident. The department said they recovered a .40 caliber handgun with a high-capacity extended magazine from his pocket. They said officers also found a 7.26 caliber rifle with a loaded 100-round drum magazine inside the car within reach of the children.
As of Wednesday, Banks was in the custody of the St. Louis County Justice Center on a $100,000 cash-only bond. The Collinsville and Berkeley police departments intend to apply for warrants on crimes he is accused of committing within their jurisdictions.
