Bystander helps rescue woman after carjacking
Published 11:02 pm Tuesday, December 30, 2008
EVERETT — Police say a man’s quick thinking helped rescue a woman who was carjacked at gunpoint at a south Everett grocery store early Monday.
The woman, 19, had just finished shopping about 5:15 a.m. at Top Foods in the 1600 block of SE Everett Mall Way, Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said.
When she got into her car, two men were in the back seat, one of them armed with a gun, Goetz said.
One man grabbed the woman by the hair, held a pistol to her head and ordered her to drive away, according to court documents filed Tuesday in Everett District Court.
Two friends of the woman saw her kidnapped and ran back into the store for help, Goetz said.
A bystander overheard the pleas for help and followed the woman’s car as she was forced to drive off.
The bystander called 911 and led police to the woman’s car.
Officers caught up with the car near the intersection of 112th Street SE and Airport Road. The woman escaped unharmed and the two men were arrested without incident.
Camano Orion Gahagan, 29, and Robert Eric Koppel, 27, made brief appearances Tuesday in Everett District Court. They were ordered held on $250,000 bail.
Detectives learned that one of the men had threatened to kill the woman and fired a round through the windshield, Goetz said.
The men reportedly kept calling the woman someone else’s name, police said.
“It appears as though they were looking for someone else and got her,” Goetz said.
The men, of Mill Creek and Everett, were booked into the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of first-degree robbery, first-degree assault and first-degree kidnapping.
Police still want to talk to the woman’s friends who were shopping with her when she was carjacked.
The bystander who helped police said he was thankful the woman was safe, the men arrested and no one was injured. He declined requests to talk with reporters.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Everett police tip line at 425-257-8450.
