Suspect arrested for south Fort Myers carjacking of 2 women and a child

A suspect has been arrested after two women and a child were victims of a carjacking in south Fort Myers on Thursday.

According to Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, deputies responded to a call at Gulf Coast Town Center in south Fort Myers for a reported carjacking.

Marceno said, Deshaun Blake, 28, was the driver of a vehicle that caught fire on I-75. That car fire caused traffic to be at a standstill on Thursday afternoon.

“Our suspect left that vehicle and started walking down 75 where he encountered our victim,” Marceno said.

The victim pulled her car over to the side of the road nearby to calm a baby in the car. “Not far from where the suspect’s car caught fire. The victim, in this case, pulled over to the shoulder of the highway to tend to the baby in her car,” said Sheriff Marceno.

That’s when Blake is accused of getting into her car and hitting one of the two women and demanding she drive. There was another woman and a child also in the car at the time. “The suspect then entered the victim’s car, battered her, and demanded that she drive away,” Sheriff Marceno said.

The woman told LCSO detectives that she was forced to drive 100 miles per hour at one point. The victim drove to Gulf Coast Town Center off Alico Road where Blake got out of the car. That gave the woman a chance to call 911.

WINK News spoke with one of the victims on Friday. The woman recalled, “they were trying to kidnap me.”

Juan Flores says this is every parent’s worse nightmare. “As a father, I wouldn’t know an exact reaction of how I would react with kids in the car,” Flores said.

Situations like this are the reason why Flores tells his wife and two kids to always be on high alert. “You never know how people react and what kind of approach people have whether that’s good or bad what the intentions are. You have to be ready for it,” said Flores.

With the help of the US Marshals, Lee County Sheriff’s deputies were able to arrest Blake at his home in Lehigh Acres on Tuesday morning.

Blake faces three counts of false imprisonment, burglary of a vehicle, and battery. Marceno said battery charges can include striking a victim or unwanted touch.

“Unfortunately, you have good and bad people everywhere. And us as parents just have to be ready. To protect our kids,” said Flores.

The cause of the initial care fire is still unknown.

Watch the news conference again in the player below or click here.