Alabama authorities have revealed more details in the case of Aniah Blanchard, a 19-year-old Alabama woman who has been missing since last month, including the criminal history of the suspect in her case.
County District Attorney Brandon Hughes requested that Ibraheem Yazeed, 29, be held without bond because of “an extensive history of violent criminal offenses.” Hughes also made the request because Yazeed fled Alabama after he was publicly identified as a suspect. Yazeed was arrested and charged with kidnapping Friday, Nov. 8.
Blanchard’s vehicle, a black 2017 Honda CRV, was recovered and searched for evidence shortly after her disappearance. Arrest documents for Yazeed state that blood evidence was discovered in the passenger’s compartment of the vehicle and was “indicative of someone suffering a life-threatening injury,” according to AL.com.
Blanchard, a Southern Union State Community College student, was last seen Oct. 24. Police later found her damaged car in Montgomery.
"I am prayerful that the Lord touches this young man's heart so he will be honest and truthful and tell the authorities where our daughter is located," Blanchard's stepmother, Yashiba Blanchard, told Al.com. "I feel as if the Lord has heard our cries and the community's cries for help with finding our daughter."
Yazeed was released from an Alabama jail in February after prosecutors said he beat a man unconscious and "near death" in a vicious robbery, court records show. He faces attempted murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree robbery charges in that earlier case.
Yazeed was out on bond at the time of Blanchard's disappearance.
"It's very concerning to know that someone who has committed that sort of crime was out and in our community," Auburn Police Chief Paul Register told reporters at a news conference. "We think this is someone who should be in custody."
U.S. marshals were in the Pensacola area late Thursday when they called the Escambia Sheriff's Office for assistance in detaining him, Sheriff's Maj. Andrew Hobbs said.
"I don't know how they knew he was in the area — they got the tip and called us," Hobbs said.
Yazeed was taken into custody about 11 p.m. Thursday near an exit from Interstate 10, Hobbs said.
"When we arrived, the suspect fled the area, but he was located by Escambia sheriff's officers and marshals in a wooded area near the exit," Hobbs said.
Yazeed was wheeled from the scene on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance. Video of the arrest from WEAR-TV shows Yazeed yelling as he's being taken away.
His jail booking photo shows him with a swollen left eye.
"Upon encountering Yazeed, the Marshals issued multiple verbal commands to which Yazeed did not comply," Inspector Dominic Guadagnoli, of the Florida/Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force, said in a statement Friday.
"The task force members then had to physically remove him from his hiding spot," he said.
Yazeed has had a previous violent run-in with Alabama law enforcers.
In 2012, he was accused of ramming his vehicle into a Montgomery police car at a Chevron station and charged with two counts of attempted murder of a police officer. He was fleeing from the two Montgomery officers at the time and plowed into the squad car "as the officers exited their vehicle in an attempt to kill the officers," a court affidavit states.
Yazeed's mother wrote the judge handling that case, saying "he felt afraid and didn't know how to handle or control the vehicle due to so many fired gunshots towards the vehicle."
“I believe he is suffering some type of mental disorder," his mother also wrote in the letter. She said her son suffered a head injury as a child and didn't always use good judgment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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