About 15 minutes later, Hoover, Ala. police say Fitzgerald and Harper committed a home invasion and robbery; and kidnapped a woman from that home.
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Tuscaloosa County Homicide Unit Lt. Kip Hart said today that after leaving Microtel, they made a stop at the Home Depot on Veteran’s Memorial Parkway next to the hotel and one of the suspect’s got items from an SUV parked there.
Fitzgerald and Harper are still at large. Both are 31 years old and from Joplin, Missouri.
At 7:45 a.m., Hoover police say armed suspects tried to rob a manager at the McDonald’s at 1731 Montgomery Highway, which is across from The Galleria. “We have no idea why they’re running or where they’re running from or running to”. He says security video from the Microtel Inn in Tuscaloosa showed the safe being robbed before the overnight clerk was abducted early Sunday morning. “He said, ‘I was kidnapped in Tuscaloosa and they brought me here, dropped me off”‘. The couple forced him to leave with them.
Facebook Brittany Harper, 31, is charged with kidnapping and theft of property.
Harris said the man police identified as Fitzgerald told her she was being robbed and then demanded her auto keys.
The victim threw her keys on the ground, yelled for help and ran toward the McDonalds.
A nationwide manhunt for a Missouri couple accused of kidnapping and theft continues; and at least one of their crimes is believed to have happened in the Heartland. They have not been charged yet in that case, however.
“He said, ‘Give me the (expletive) auto, ‘ and that’s when he pulled the gun and said, ‘I’m not (expletive) playing with you, ‘” Harris told AL.com. York says the woman was later released unharmed about 10 miles away. It is a silver 2010 Ford Edge.
Harris said she didn’t know until later about the abductions in Tuscaloosa and Hoover. “I mean, what’s the whole point in all of this?”
York said if anyone sees the vehicle, they shouldn’t approach them but should called Vestavia Hills police at 205-978-0140.
Fitzgerald had a few dozen charges filed against him in Missouri including burglary, assault and DWI.
The wife flagged down a driver who brought her home.
He was sentenced to seven years in prison for that crime to run along with a sentence for a DWI. but Fitzgerald only served a 120 days in prison and was let out on supervised probation for five years.
Meanwhile, police in the neighboring city of Hoover said they planned to charge the couple with the attempted robbery of a McDonald’s manager a short time before the abduction.
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Hoover, Tuscaloosa and Vestavia Hills police departments are working together, along with federal authorities, to find the suspects.
