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Witness described kidnapped woman's escape from crime spree suspect

Posted at 9:41 PM, Apr 04, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-05 05:47:36-04

One of the witnesses to Tuesday night's crime spree by Allan Farris is talking about what he saw in the midst of the criminal chaos.

Joshua McDade says he woke up to the sound of screaming in Highland Park, as a woman who Farris had kidnaped escaped.

Farris shot two women - one in an attempted carjacking, before carjacking the other - before kidnapping the third woman and taking her on a wild ride from Northville Township to Highland Park, where they ended up in a back alley near Rhode Island, behind a Mustang.

That's where the woman got away and screamed for help.

"My brother, we ran outside off the porch and we actually saw the young lady running, coming through right here she was screaming for help," McDade says.

McDade lives just a block from the scene where a search warrant was executed. He says they thought it was a fender bender at first.

"We thought it was a car accident or something like that, so we immediately saw what happened and when we saw that duck tape on her, we knew it was something worse than that," he says. "Black duck tape around her hands and I think like black duck tape or something was around her waist also. "Like a loud cry so it did echo around a few houses, so we did hear like a loud crying scream, she was saying like “please help me, somebody help me, I’m in danger, call the police."

The woman, who was wearing a pink hoodie, made her way to a neighbor's porch while McDade called 911. He says the operators told them not to talk or help her, until police got to the scene.

"Because they didn’t want the guy to come back or they didn’t want him to find her again they didn’t know where he was at," he says. "I'm glad that she’s okay, I’m glad the family is okay. It could’ve been a lot worse."

All three women are expected to recover.

Farris was arrested about 15 miles from the Highland Park scene, after trying to carjack an undercover Michigan State Police trooper.

Gunfire was exchanged during that encounter, as well as during a final standoff which ended with Farris dead.

At this point, it's still unclear if he was shot by police, or turned the gun on himself.