A Charlottesville woman survived an attempted abduction on Wednesday evening, and police arrested a suspect on Thursday. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
On the evening of October 4th, a man attempted to abduct a female University of Virginia student in Charlottesville. The man, who was a stranger to the student, got her in a car, then crashed into multiple vehicles and trees on Cabell Avenue, where the student was able to fight her way out. The Charlottesville Police Department responded to the scene at about 9:40 p.m. The student's injuries were treated at UVa Health and she is in stable condition. Police quickly identified 40-year-old James Robert Allen of Suffolk, Virginia as the suspect. Multiple local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies began looking for Allen, who was believed to be on foot in the area. He was taken into custody in Louisa County just after noon on Thursday, and is facing charges of strangulation and abduction.
At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Chief Michael Kochis said he could not give any details about how Allen was identified, and they're still investigating why he was in Charlottesville.
Allen was previously arrested on charges of abduction and malicious wounding in Fauquier County in 2008, when he was 24 years old. According to court records available online, a jury trial that December ended in a mistrial. A second trial in February 2009 ended in a dismissal of the abduction charge, but Allen was convicted of misdemeanor assault and battery, which had been amended down from malicious wounding. He received a 12 month sentence and a year of probation.
