Man arrested after carjacking family’s vehicle in Henderson, police say
A man sought in a human trafficking investigation at a Henderson hospital Monday evening carjacked a random vehicle carrying a family, including three small 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 Chief Reggie Rader said.
Police first notified the public at about 6:15 p.m. to avoid the area around the incident, in the 1000 block of Galleria Drive.
A woman at the hospital reported she was the victim of human trafficking, Rader said. Officers identified a suspect who took off running after police made contact, Rader said.
A woman at a nearby commercial complex was loading up her kids and her mother’s wheelchair into a vehicle when the man jumped in and started driving in reverse, almost striking the children’s mother, Rader said.
“The mother jumped in the back of this vehicle clinging onto her kids yelling repeatedly for this individual to stop,” Rader said.
Observing this, an officer gave chase and hit the vehicle into landscaping before the suspect was able to jump into a major road, Rader said.
Rader said everyone involved, including the officer, were hospitalized with minor injuries.
In a press release, Henderson police identified the suspect as Jose Alvarez, 35. Online records from the Henderson Detention Center show Alvarez was being held on suspected 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 Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Review-Journal staff writer Casey Harrison contributed to this report.