A 33-year-old Montrealer faces numerous charges for participating in the kidnapping of a seemingly uneventful merchant in the Center Laval parking lot a few days before Christmas.

• To read also: Abduction in a parking lot in Laval: a suspect arrested and another still on the run

Kenny Manuel Brito Rosales has been charged with kidnapping, dangerous driving, assault with a weapon and robbery, among other charges.

He is suspected of being one of the two assailants who suddenly attacked the owner of a luxury store in Center Laval on the morning of December 22.

The Saint-Léonard resident is currently detained and his case will return to court on January 25.

At the time of the crime, the one who combines attendance in court was already facing charges of drug possession and concealment in Longueuil.

Total shock

While Brito Rosales' accomplice is still running, the alleged 59-year-old victim remains on her guard, struggling to understand why she was targeted.

“I hope things like that don’t even happen to my haters. It's scary, he said to the Journal. I don't know exactly what their purpose was."

This Laval resident, who asked to conceal his identity for security reasons, has no criminal history, and is not known to the police.

But then, when he arrived at work on December 22, he was snatched from a dozen objects belonging to customers whose total value is between $10,000 to $12,000.

The one who trembles thinking back to the sequence was then forced into a dark gray van, without even being tied up.

"There was a little fight, they kicked me on the nose and took me hostage," says the 50-year-old, who, according to our information, delivered the same version to the Journal and the police.

"Am I going to be alive?"

A person witnessing the scene was fortunately able to alert the police, who started a long pursuit of about 20 kilometers in the streets of Montreal.

“Am I going to be alive? Am I going to be with my family in the next few days?” asked the trader during the hunt, which would have caused at least two clashes with other vehicles.

To his great relief, the suspects finally stopped their van on rue Émile-Dupont, in the Rivière-des-Prairies district to flee on foot.

However, Brito Rosales was quickly pinned down by the authorities, who are continuing their investigation.