By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
A 47-year-old Atmore man remained behind bars this week, nearly two weeks after he allegedly forced his former girlfriend into a car at knifepoint, then drove recklessly across town while threatening to kill her and himself.
Kenyatta McCants, who was already out of jail on bond after his 2017 arrest on a weapons charge, is being held under $250,000 bond in the Escambia County Detention Center. Jail records show he is charged with one count each of first-degree kidnaping and violation of a protective abuse order.
District Attorney Steve Billy’s office has reportedly asked that bond on the initial charge, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, be revoked.
Atmore Police Chief Chuck Brooks said officers were sent April 18 to the Diamond Food Store on Jack Springs Road, where a reported domestic disturbance was in progress.
“When officers got there, they spoke with a black male in the passenger seat of a brown car,” Brooks said. “When they asked him what was going on, he told them ‘nothing.’ He said his girlfriend was with him and was inside the store.”
Brooks said officers made contact with the woman, who told them she had been taken from her home against her will by McCants.
“She told our officers that Mr. McCants had taken her from her house on Sunset Drive,” the police chief said. “She said he pulled a knife on her and ordered her into the car, and that she was scared he was going to harm her. She said he drove to the (Interstate 65) bridge, going really fast, and told her he was going to kill both of them.”
She also told police that she had tried to call 911, but McCants snatched her phone from her before she could complete the call. When McCants stopped at the local store so she could use the restroom, she whispered to the cashier to call the police, that she was being held against her will.
When police ran a check on McCants, they found out about the protective order, which prohibited him from coming within 100 feet of the woman, who said she was no longer his girlfriend.
Brooks said police found a small knife, apparently the one he used to threaten the woman, inside the vehicle.
If McCants were to make bond, one condition is that he must not have contact with the victim.