Kidnap victim escapes SUV when Pasco officer surprises the suspects

A SUV driving without its headlights led police to rescuing a kidnapping victim.

The 25-year-old woman told officers through sobs that two strangers had forced her into a silver car by threatening her and claiming to have her boyfriend.

Now, Irwing J. Gamboa Gomez, 27, and Rodolfo Mendoza Ochoa, 39, are being held in the Franklin County jail on first-degree kidnapping charges.

Bail is set at $500,000 for Gamboa Gomez, who faces an additional charge of attempting to elude police. Mendoza Ochoa is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Suspicious SUV

Pasco police officers first noticed the silver SUV shortly after 1 a.m. on Oct. 28, according to court documents. An officer signaled for the car to pull over, but the driver, believed to be Gamboa Gomez, refused to stop.

As the driver sped east on Lewis Street, the officer stopped chasing.

Another Pasco officer spotted the SUV as it drove on A Street. And he began tailing the car as it headed west again.

“It appeared as if the vehicle was headed toward the Lakeview Mobile Home Park,” Pasco Officer Matt Griffin wrote in an affidavit. “We have had multiple stolen vehicles abandoned at the Lakeview Mobile Home Park.”

Thinking it might be another stolen car, Griffin followed it into the mobile home park and turned off his headlights.

Soon after, Griffin spotted the SUV headed straight for him. The officer flipped on his headlights and as the car drove past, he heard yelling.

Then he saw a woman scramble out of the car and begin shouting, screaming and crying as she ran toward the patrol car.

When the officer approached the 25-year-old woman, she was crying uncontrollably and began to hyperventilate. She told the officer she was afraid the two men were going to kill her.

Afraid for her life

The woman told police the SUV approached her earlier while she was near some apartments at 22nd Avenue and Sylvester Street.

She didn’t know the two men inside but one of them, later identified as Gamboa Gomez, asked if she remembered him, and when she said she didn’t, he turned off his car.

She started getting scared and backed away, but he told her to get in or he would hurt her boyfriend.

“He said he has her boyfriend, ‘G’, and if she does not want him to get hurt, she needs to get into the car,” Griffin wrote. “The driver told her that she was going to get hurt if she did not get into the car.”

He threatened her with what she thought was a gun, but turned out to be a metal pipe, said police.

After being forced into the car, they drove to the Tahitian Inn in Pasco. She kept asking about where her boyfriend was, and asking the driver to let her go.

In response, Mendoza Ochoa told her to be quiet and, if she did what they told her, she wouldn’t get hurt.

When they saw the first police car, Gamboa Gomez turned off the headlights and took off, she said. And Mendoza Ochoa kept telling her to shut up.

As they drove into the Lakeview Mobile Home Park, Gamboa Gomez pulled out a knife and Mendoza Ochoa grabbed a metal bar. She thought they were going to kill her. It’s unclear if they ever had her boyfriend.

But she was able to escape when Officer Griffin surprised them at the mobile home park.

Other officers chased the SUV and a police sergeant forced Gamboa Gomez to lose control of the car and the men were arrested near Road 40 East and A Street.

The woman identified the men as the ones who held her in the SUV.

Other charges

Gamboa Gomez already was awaiting trial for second-degree robbery for allegedly threatening to punch his mother because she didn’t let him use her car.

He didn’t have a valid driver’s license or permission to use the car, according to court documents. He also has “bad addictions problem.”

He was out of jail on $10,000 bail when he was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping.

Mendoza Ochoa also was recently released from the Franklin County jail after pleading guilty and being sentenced for a fourth-degree assault in late September.

He admitted to beating another man with a stick in Volunteer Park in Pasco, according to court documents.