An FBI fugitive who police said broke in a Cheraw home, shot a man and then kidnapped his girlfriend was captured in Tuesday night in Atlanta.
Taj Maurice “TJ” Pittman, 33, was arrested there by a law enforcement officer, using a state-of-the-art automatic tag reader that provides real-time information, who scanned Pittman’s vehicle license plate and found that he was a fugitive, Cheraw Police Chief Jay Brooks said.
Brooks said Pittman broke into an apartment on Agerton Street about 11 p.m. Monday.
The mother of one of the victims answered the door and the suspect, holding a big roll of duct tape, forced her onto a bedroom floor and taped her arms and legs together, the chief said.
The suspect then tied up a man inside the home, hit him in the mouth with a gun and shot him in the neck. That victim is listed in stable condition at a local hospital.
Brooks said the suspect then kidnapped the victim’s girlfriend and fled the scene in a stolen van.
The woman who was kidnapped by the suspect was found alive Tuesday afternoon in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in Indian Trail, N.C., Brooks said.
Brooks told reporters in an e-mail the woman was “shaken up, but physically fine,” and meeting with his detectives.
Pittman will be extradited to South Carolina next week, the chief said.
Pittman was wanted on two federal bank robbery charges and one state bank robbery charge in North Carolina, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reported. He is accused of robbing a Wachovia bank in Kannapolis, N.C., on Nov. 7 and a Sun Trust Bank in Concord, N.C., on June 18.
Brooks said Pittman also was once involved in a shooting that involved an FBI agent. FBI agents pursued Pittman to an apartment complex one day after his release from Cabarrus County (N.C.) jail in early December, according to the The Charlotte Observer. New federal bank robbery charges had been filed that day. During the incident at the complex, gunfire was exchanged between Pittman and FBI agents, and Pittman got away.
The FBI offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to Pittman’s arrest, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Pittman will be extradited to South Carolina next week to face two counts kidnapping and one count of assault and battery with intent to kill, Brooks said.
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