WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – “I was scared for my life.” Those are the words from a Watertown man who was allegedly kidnapped by a homeless man wielding a hatchet.
7 News obtained the statement the alleged victim gave to city police after they arrested 38-year-old Dustin King.
King, who’s described in court documents as homeless, was arrested Wednesday and charged with:
- second-degree kidnapping
- third-degree criminal possession of a weapon
- second-degree menacing
It all started shortly after 11 a.m. on Wednesday in the 1400 block of Holcomb Street in Watertown.
According to police, King threatened a man with a hatchet and forced him to drive him to various places for about an hour.
Police said the two men know each other.
According to the alleged victim’s statement to police, he gave King a ride in his car the night before and King showed up at his house the next day. According to the statement, King said he left his drugs in the man’s car.
“He (King) swung the axe and hit my car two or three times with it and put dents in it. I did what he wanted because I’ve heard about him, and he has a reputation. I was scared for my life. I had no idea what he would do to me. When he told me to get in the car, I did because I was scared,” the man told police.
The man also said King forced him to drive to a convenience store on Washington Street and get King a drink.
“He threatened me that if I ran that he was going to harm me. He mentioned something about coming back and burning my house down. He still had the axe with him. He wasn’t holding it up to my neck or anything, but I knew that he would use it on me if I tried anything. So, I took him to Stewart’s. Then we went to Taco Bell, through the drive-through,” the man told police.
The man said he sat there while King ate.
“The whole time he was still calling me names and threatening me. After Taco Bell, we started going back to the house, but Dustin saw the cop cars and made me turn around. He told me to pull into the driveway and wait a few, then to back out all nice and normal and not to pull any crap…Then we drove to Cold Creek,” the man said in his police statement.
According to police, they found the alleged victim’s vehicle at Cold Creek Apartments at 24098 State Route 12 in the town of Watertown.
They said the alleged victim was inside his vehicle and was unhurt.
“I was very relieved when the police showed up, even though I didn’t know if I was in trouble or not,” he said in his statement.
King was inside one of the apartments and taken into custody, police said.
“I later found out that Dustin had left drugs in my back seat. He told me that it was cocaine and crack, and I also (word missing here) little baggies of what I would say is heroin. It was packaged like that. He had a little bit of a few different drugs,” the alleged victim said in his police statement.
King was arraigned in Jefferson County CAP Court and is being held without bail in the Jefferson County Jail.
Police declined to comment on a motive.
Watertown police were assisted by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Dexter Police Department, New York State Police, the Metro Jefferson Drug Task Force, and the Jefferson County 911 Center.
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