MARTIN COUNTY — What one man believed would be a second date with a woman he met on Instagram, morphed into a violent kidnapping and armed robbery, according to Martin County Sheriff’s officials and court records.
The man, whose address and age were not released, told sheriff’s deputies he was robbed at gunpoint the night of May 26 and beaten with a handgun while being driven around for hours by two 19-year-old men, both of whom are from Palm Beach County, and a minor girl he believed to be 18 years old.
The man was rescued May 27 around 8 a.m. by Stuart police when officers pulled over his blue Honda Accord on the southbound lanes of the Roosevelt Bridge, arrest reports show.
When the four occupants were asked to exit the Honda, the man told officers he’d been kidnapped and beaten by the two men in the car, who were taken into custody with a 15-year-old girl.
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Tyrese Kerr, 19, of West Palm Beach, who was seated in the back seat, faces numerous felonies, including kidnapping with a weapon or firearm; robbery with a firearm; contributing to the delinquency of a minor, possession of a firearm by a convicted delinquent while masked, court records show.
Damali Kori Zamario Gordon, 19, of Royal Palm Beach, who was behind the wheel when police pulled the car over, was charged with sudden snatching with a firearm or weapon, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and operating a vehicle without a valid license.
It was unclear as of May 31 if either man had hired an attorney.
According to sheriff’s investigators and court records, here’s what happened:
Robbery plot started on Instagram
The man said he met the minor girl through Instagram about three years ago but they never met until May 23, when they hung out for the day and he returned home.
When he contacted the girl a week later to meet again, she gave him her home address, which was blacked out in arrest reports.
The man said he arrived around 10 p.m., and the two “went straight to her room to watch Netflix.”
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Before long, the girl said she was going to take a shower and left with his car keys and wallet - without his knowledge.
When he noticed his car and wallet were missing, he texted the girl asking her if she had taken his car. Soon after, he got two alerts of two attempted Cash App transactions at a Shell station for $175 and then $20.
Cash App allows people to digitally send and receive cash.
While still in the girl’s room, Gordon and Kerr confronted the man.
The girl had driven his car to get the men, investigators were told later.
Kerr “wore a black mask and pointed a firearm at his temple with his right hand” while Gordon “began demanding money, stating they would kill him,” the man reported.
After attempting to get the man to use his phone to transfer the two men money, they put him in the back seat of his Honda and all four drove towards Lowe’s in Jensen Beach.
“They informed him if he did not comply, they would take him and kill him,” investigators reported. “Kerr ‘pistol whipped’ him striking the left top of his head with the top rail of the handgun in his right hand.”
When the man couldn’t provide $500 being demanded of him, he contacted his aunt, who sent him $100.
After several more Cash App transaction attempts, the man was driven to a 7-Eleven store in Jensen Beach to access an ATM inside. He withdrew $360 and handed the money to the girl before all four returned to the Honda.
Their interactions in the store were recorded on security video, investigators noted.
Stuart police stopped the vehicle shortly afterward.
In a statement to deputies after his arrest, Kerr said he’d gotten the gun from a friend “for safety” before the girl picked him up in the man’s car and they returned to her home.
Kerr admitted entering her home wearing a mask and pointing a loaded gun at the man. He also admitted holding the gun to the man’s head as they drove around trying to get more money.
State prosecutors on Friday had not determined whether the girl, who is in custody at the St. Lucie Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Fort Pierce, will be charged as an adult.
