Arrest report sheds more light on alleged Henderson carjacking

A man sought in a human trafficking investigation in Henderson Monday evening carjacked a vehicle carrying a family from Colorado, including three children, according to police.

About three minutes after the pursuit began, the vehicle was rammed by a police cruiser, the family was rescued and the suspect was taken taken into custody, Henderson Police Department Chief Reggie Rader said.

According to a police report, a woman visiting from Colorado, her mother, and her three children were at a Dave & Buster’s location in Henderson Monday afternoon when a man, later identified as Jose Alvarez, 35, carjacked them.

Police notified the public at about 6:15 p.m. to avoid the area around the incident, in the 1000 block of Galleria Drive, near Henderson Hospital.

The woman, the report said, was loading up her kids and her mother’s wheelchair into a Toyota SUV when Alvarez jumped in and started driving in reverse, striking the woman.

The woman then jumped into the “rear hatch” of the SUV, which was being driven out of the Dave & Buster’s parking lot with the hatch door still open and the woman’s mother and the three children in the vehicle.

According to the report, the woman started to “scream that her family was inside the vehicle” and for Alvarez to stop, though he continued to drive the SUV.

The report stated the woman saw her mother begin to bite one of Alvarez’s arms.

The reported stated the carjacking “could have easily caused death or substantial bodily harm to the victims involved” if Alvarez had been able to access nearby Interstate 11 before being rammed by the officer.

Online records from the Henderson Detention Center show Alvarez was being held on charges of robbery, burglary and grand larceny of a motor vehicle, resisting a public officer, battery with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, domestic battery and coercion.

Records from the Henderson Justice Court show that Alvarez made an initial appearance 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and will appear again for a status check 9 a.m. Aug. 11.

An attorney was not listed in Alvarez’s case file.

Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BryanHorwath on X. Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Review-Journal staff writer Casey Harrison contributed to this report.