Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s deputies arrested two men and accused them of holding two others captive for a week.
Andres Hernandez-Perez, 30, and Juan Guzman-Sanchez, 27, were both booked with two counts of second-degree kidnapping. Both remain in LPCC in lieu of $150,000 bond each.
Detectives went to Malapart Road Monday afternoon, where a man told them he had escaped from a nearby house where he and his brother had bound by the wrists and chained up for a week. He said he believed one of the suspects had a gun, and threatened to use it if they left the home, according to jail records.
Deputies went to the house and found two people in the house, and then found a victim chained up in the house, the documents state.
The spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, Lt. John Mowell, said it appears the victims and the suspects know each other.
While the case is under investigation, deputies say a language barrier is posing problems.
“They’re following a lot of leads and trying to make contact with some people. Obviously, there’s a language barrier. I was out there translating for them earlier today so you know we’re trying to get to the facts of it,” said Lt. Mowell.
And tonight, neighbors are still reeling from the news about the hostage situation.
Kids were getting off the bus, parents waiting to hug their kids after school, and the thought of a kidnapping in the neighborhood has many feeling uneasy.
“It’s like worrisome because I have an 11-year-old and a 6-year-old and I mean my little boy is 13. But they go outside and play. And to hear something like that, it’s just horrifying. Now that I heard that my children have to stay in the house,” said Phyllis Benoit, who has been living in the neighborhood for 15 years.
She said she is used to the violence in the neighborhood, but this last incident is giving her motivation to move her family out of the area.
“[The gun shots] can be sometimes in the morning time or the night time. All you do is hear is gunshots. You call the cops, they get here and you just got to get used to it until, you know, you relocate. So that’s what I’m trying to do is relocate because it’s just too much,” said Benoit.
One mother tells KATC’s Dannielle Garcia she walks by the trailer where she said it happened, every day and never suspected anything out of the ordinary.
“I take my children to the bus stop and I walk by there,” said Sarah Lewis, who lives right down the street.
“But it’s very scary, for one. Because you know, I mean, it could’ve been kids,” she said.
Lewis said she and her children will continue walking to the bus stop, but she’ll keep an even closer eye on her kids during those walks.
“You just need to be careful even with the people you know because you never know what they’re capable of, and just stick to yourself,” said Lewis.
