BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Two men were arrested Saturday night after they allegedly tried to carjack a woman as she was putting her child in the vehicle.
Brevard County deputies said the 27-year-old victim was putting her 2-year-old child in the vehicle at a home on Gilmore Street in Malabar when she was approached by two men.
The victim told detectives the men, later identified as Staphane Johnson, 20, and Kelvin Houston, 23, offered her $100 for a ride.
When she declined the offer, Houston ran from the scene but Johnson jumped into the driver’s seat, put the vehicle in reverse and tried to leave with the child, deputies said.
The mother jumped into car and started screaming as she tried to grab the key, reports said.
She was able to get the key out of the ignition and struggled with the suspect as she got the vehicle into park.
Deputies and police officers, who were already in the area searching for the suspects, got to the scene and took Johnson into custody.
Deputies had spotted the suspects in a stolen vehicle prior to the carjacking.
Johnson was arrested and booked into the Brevard County Jail in lieu of a $100,000 bond.
Houston was quickly found and jailed on a $1,000 bond on charges of loitering and prowling.
Johnson is a convicted felon with a history of violent offenses, deputies said.
"We are all very relieved that this young mother and child are safe and that our Deputies were able to quickly respond and remove another violent offender off our streets,” said Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey in a press release. “
WFTV
