Would be kidnapper stopped by cops

A taxi driver out on a very early run on Monday morning is lucky to be alive after being held up at gunpoint and taken hostage. Police say that according to Luis Navarro, around two-thirty on Monday morning he had just finished a job and was heading back to his base. But at the corner of University Drive and Princess Margaret Drive, Navarro says a man stopped him for a ride so he got out and opened the passenger door. The driver claims it was at that point that the would-be passenger hit him in the face and stomach with what appeared to be a handgun. The assailant is then reported to have commandeered the vehicle and demanded Navarro’s address. And that’s how the victim managed to escape because he told his attacker that he lived on New Road. As the taxi turned the corner of Queen Street onto New Road, Navarro jumped out of the vehicle and ran into the Police Station. A chase immediately ensued and officers caught up with the taxi near Victoria Street. The suspect has since been identified as twenty-two year old Honduran Fernando Duarte. Duarte appeared before Magistrate Roberto Ordonez this morning where he pled “no culpa”, not guilty to the charge of robbery with a firearm. The matter has been adjourned until the ninth of May. Investigators have not recovered the weapon Navarro says was used in the incident.