Jordan Dinsmore, a 20-year-old college student from South Carolina, escaped from kidnappers who threatened to rape and murder her. She’s alive today because she knows how to drive stick and to keep a cool head under pressure.
“We call her ‘James Bond,'” said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott according to CBS local WLTX 19. Lott praised Dinsmore for her ability to “outsmart and out-plan” her kidnappers despite being outnumbered and out gunned.
Dinsmore works at Buffalo Wild Wings to pay for tuition at Midlands Technical College in Columbia. She was on her way home from work around 12:30 AM on Wednesday, July 26th when she was attacked. Dinsmore had parked outside her apartment complex when three men in dark clothing approached her. One of the men pointed a gun at her and threatened to shoot as the other two threw her to the ground.
The kidnappers forced Dinsmore into the backseat of her own vehicle before they realized her car had a manual transmission. None of the men knew how to drive a stick shift. Frustrated by the delay, one of the three men fled on foot with Dinsmore’s purse and phone. The remaining two kidnappers forced Dinsmore into the driver’s seat.
The attackers demanded to be driven to a local ATM. They did not notice Dinsmore unbuckle her seat belt when she reached out to collect $300 from the machine. Luckily, they did not notice or did not care about the beeping seat belt alarm.
“I was thinking somehow I have to get out of this,” Dinsmore told local South Carolina newspaper The State. “Can I crash the car? No, because it might knock me out and not them. Can I pull over or something? I have to get away from them.”
While she was formulating her plan, one of the kidnappers told Dinsmore she would drive them to his relative’s house where she would be raped. Dinsmore was told she would be shot if she refused.
As they approached an intersection, one kidnapper told Dinsmore to take a right. She ignored the command and drove straight, accelerating as the men yelled for her to pull over. When she reached 35 mph, Dinsmore threw the car into neutral, opened her door, and dove out of the vehicle.
“I just screamed: ‘Call 911! Call 911! Someone just kidnapped me and threatened to shoot me!’” Dinsmore told The State. Dinsmore said she was thinking about her own mother who narrowly escaped assault when she was in college decades earlier.
Police caught all three suspected kidnappers the following day. 17-year-old Raquan Green and two unnamed 15-year-old boys were arrested for Dinsmore’s abduction and connected with six other robberies and four other kidnapping.
According to Columbia’s Cola Daily, the suspects admitted that they were targeting white people and only white people throughout their crime spree from July 3rd through July 26th.
The three teens began targeting delivery drivers for armed robbery, but they soon escalated to carjackings, abductions, and threats of sexual assault.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department released the following news release on Thursday after the suspects were arrested,
Between July 3rd and July 26th there have been seven separate incidents of armed robberies, some to include carjacking and kidnapping along the Bluff /Shop Road Corridor. Investigators discovered that the suspects began targeting delivery drivers by committing armed robberies. The crimes then escalated to carjacking and kidnapping victims.
All the incidents happened late at night where delivery drivers were targeted and students were moving into student housing or leaving apartments in the area. The suspects stole cash, cell phones, and various electronics.
Sheriff Lott stated that the seven incidents include:
7/3 – 11:30pm Delivery driver from China Wing Basket robbed at gunpoint on the 100 block of Aster Circle
7/15- 7:50pm Delivery driver from Teapot Chinese Restaurant was robbed at gunpoint at 1051 Southern, the Village at Columbia Apartments
7/17- 7:13pm Delivery Driver was robbed and assaulted at 1612 Bentley Court
7/19 -11:40pm Delivery Driver Kidnapped and Abducted at 1050 Southern Drive (Village at Columbia Apartments)
07/25- 1:30am the victim was kidnapped and abducted at 112 Silo Ct – Stadium Suites
07/25 -2:00am the victim was robbed, carjacked and kidnapped at Stadium Suites
7/26 -1:15am the victim was robbed and kidnapped at 1050 Southern Drive, (Village at Columbia Apartments)
Sheriff Lott told the Cola Daily that their crimes were racially motivated. The suspects apologized and released one of their carjacking victims after realizing she was black.
The eldest criminal, Raquan Green, said “I was just trying to take care of my sick mother,” during his bond hearing. Judge Ethel Brewer set another $35,000 on top of the existing $40,000 bond after he was charged with possessing a weapon during a violent crime in addition to armed robbery and kidnapping. Assistant Solicitor John Steadman told Judge Brewer that Green is a flight risk.
The two other 15-year-old boys have also been charged with robbery, kidnapping, and aggravated assault.
According to The State, one of the younger boys has been charged with attempted murder, assaulting a police officer, and resisting arrest. One of the arresting deputies suffered a non-life threatening leg injury and required hospitalization after the young teen’s arrest.
“These are hardcore kids,” Lott said. “These are not the first crimes they had committed.”
Green was arrested and charged with grand larceny and possession of a stolen vehicle in May of this year, but his charges were dismissed just a few weeks before his latest arrest.