MIAMI – A man who told cops he was “smoking weed” on a street corner in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood ended up being kidnapped, beaten, stabbed and robbed by a group of four men last month, according to an arrest report; police have since made at least two arrests in the case.
Police arrested Frank Martin Gonzalez, 39, of Hialeah, on Monday and also have Geovani Tejera, 33, in custody, according to the report.
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According to the report, on the evening of Nov. 10, the man was smoking marijuana with another man on the corner of Northwest 17th Avenue and 61st Street when a silver, older-model Chevrolet Tahoe with a missing headlight, driven by Tejera, pulled up to them.
The report states Gonzalez, Tejera and two other men got out of the SUV and forced the victim inside.
“Every time he began to look up, (Tejera) would tell (the victim) ‘don’t look up, I’m going to kill you,’” police wrote in the report.
Police said the victim told detectives that he was in the vehicle for roughly 20 minutes.
After that, the four men took the victim out of the SUV and “began to beat him up by repeatedly punching him in the face and upper torso,” the report states.
The victim told officers that one of the men then stabbed him in the right hand with a pocketknife.
Afterward, he said the men took his wallet, his black Nike shoes and his sweater, jumped in the car and sped off, police said.
The victim walked away from the scene and found a nearby security guard, who called police for him.
Police later discovered CCTV footage of the incident, they said.
They said the victim identified Gonzalez through a photo lineup on Nov. 22, and Hialeah police located him at East 10th Avenue and East 24th Street Monday afternoon and arrested him on an unrelated case.
Miami detectives went to the Hialeah Police Department to interview Gonzalez, who said he knew the victim, but denied being involved in the robbery.
Gonzalez and Tejera face charges of kidnapping and armed robbery. Police haven’t announced any additional arrests.