Darnell Rodgers
A man was arrested after a surveillance camera captured his girlfriend running to the door of a house Wednesday and screaming for help as he kicked her and dragged her to a car, according to Metro Police.
Darnell Rodgers, 23, was arrested about 3 a.m. Thursday and taken to the Clark County Detention Center, where he faces counts of kidnapping and domestic battery, police said.
The woman and the couple’s 1-month-old child, who was in the car, were OK, Capt. Dennis O’Brien said.
A break in the case came when detectives heard the woman on video saying the suspects first name, O’Brien said. They cross-referenced the name against incidents reported Wednesday and found they had responded to a domestic violence call involving the couple hours after the episode recorded on the video, he said.
After Metro released the surveillance video Wednesday night, the person who reported the initial alleged domestic violence incident, also reported that Rodgers and his girlfriend were the couple on the video, police said.
The video-recorded incident occurred about 12:50 a.m. Wednesday in a neighborhood near Warm Springs Road and the 215 Beltway, police said.
The couple was driving after a New Year’s Eve party when an argument broke out that prompted the woman to get out of the car, O’Brien said.
The video shows the woman rushing toward a house as she was pursued by a man, who kicked her and forcefully pushed her into a white sedan.
Police said the woman ran from the car toward the house where she began to “bang on the door and scream for help.”
She was crying when she made it to the front porch, and the man was seen running after her. She pleaded, “Stop, stop, stop! Please!”
The man responded, “You always (expletive) do that,” before he pushed her to the ground and kicked her in the torso, the video shows.
“Get in the car,” he was heard saying on the video. That’s when he picked her up and grabbed her by the hair, hauling her away.
The homeowner, who was alerted by his security system, immediately reported the incident from a remote location, O’Leary said.