Pregnant Woman Who Was Kidnapped, Set on Fire and Shot Gives Birth - East Idaho News
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Pregnant Woman Who Was Kidnapped, Set on Fire and Shot Gives Birth

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Getty N 011012 PoliceLine?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1338343846739Joseph Devenney/Getty Images(DETROIT) — A pregnant woman who was kidnapped, set on fire and shot in the back, in what police say was a horrific attempt to kill her unborn baby, gave birth to a boy Tuesday, hours before her ex-boyfriend and another man were charged in the attack.

Latonya Bowman, 22, was only eight months pregnant, but doctors performed an emergency Caesarean section Tuesday morning.

Jamal Rogers, the child’s father, and his roommate Antonio Mathis, both 22, were arraigned Tuesday on kidnapping, attempted murder and conspiracy charges and could face life in prison. Both requested court-appointed lawyers. They were denied bail.

Rogers allegedly began planning the attack in March, when he found out Bowman was pregnant with his third child. He enlisted Mathis, who did not even want money to participate, according to police.

The attack occurred early Saturday morning when Bowman was dropping her ex-boyfriend at his new girlfriend’s Warren, Mich., home after seeing a drive-in movie, the woman told police. After they pulled into the garage and got out of the car, the garage door closed unexpectedly, she said.

“She was grabbed by the throat and a gun was put to her head. She was ordered to the ground, duct taped, her feet, her hands and her mouth, ordered into the backseat of the car,” Warren Police Commissioner Jere Green said.

She was blindfolded before being put back into her car and driven to an alley in Detroit, Green said.

The man who kidnapped her indicated that it was because of her pregnancy.

“[The suspect] said, ‘You know why this is happening,’ and then he asked her about how far along she was,” Green said.

The woman told police she felt liquid being poured on her, heard a match strike and then was set on fire.

“She was able to get out of the car and start rolling on the ground, trying to put the fire out,” Green said. “And when that happened, two shots were fired and she was struck once in the back.”

After being shot, the woman played dead, and the man left, police said. She was able to free herself and drove to her mother’s house in Detroit. Her mother took her to the hospital.

Police took Rogers into custody on Saturday and named him a person of interest in the case. He had not called 911 when she was kidnapped, police said.

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