Orlando Sentinel – Dante Askins was arrested in the violent carjacking Wednesday of a federal agent vacationing with his family in the International Drive tourist corridor.
Askins, 18, was picked up driving a stolen car on Thursday afternoon less than a mile from the previous night’s carjacking, arrest records show.
The victim, Armando Alaniz, works for an undisclosed federal law enforcement agent, records show.
Alaniz was packing his family’s car about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday outside the Fairfield Inn at 8214 Universal Blvd., when he was jumped by four men with a gun. He was forced into his 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe by the men, who bound him with duct tape and zip ties and beat him, according to the arrest report. The hotel is south of Sand Lake Road near the Sleuths Mystery Dinner Show.
He was held for about two hours until the carjackers abandoned the SUV on West Cypress Street, about 8 miles away near Ivey Lane in west Orlando when Alaniz’s wife asked OnStar, a vehicle communications business that locates disabled and stolen vehicles, to call her husband, the report states.
Left alone, Alaniz slipped out of his bonds outside an unoccupied house on West Cypress, according to the sheriff’s office.
Askins was arrested in December 2013 and charged with taking part in drive-by shooting between two Pine Hills street gangs, Death Over Mercy and the Gorillas. A 15-year-old girl was wounded in the buttocks, records show.
After the arrest of Askins, investigators confronted him with the discovery of his fingerprints in Alaniz’s SUV. And the teen began talking, saying he was with the gunman, called “Max” and two other men he didn’t know, records show.
Investigators identified Max as Montez Taylor, whom Alaniz identified as his armed captor. There are no records showing Taylor has been arrested.
Askins, who lives on Holden Avenue, remains held in the county jail on charges of armed kidnapping, carjacking with a firearm and aggravated battery with a firearm.
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