ALIQUIPPA, Pa. — Two people from Aliquippa who are accused of threatening a woman with a gun, kidnapping her, and taking her to Pittsburgh faced a judge for the first time on Wednesday.
The case is now heading to trial, but several charges were dropped.
Tyrone Turner and his girlfriend, Ariel Harper, are both charged in the alleged kidnapping and robbery of a woman in Aliquippa on November 17. Police said the woman was terrified.
“Yeah, scared. Very scared,” said Det. Sgt. David Mosura of the Aliquippa Police Department.
The woman who was kidnapped testified at the hearing.
She said she was work-friends with Ariel Harper, and had asked if she could come over and do laundry instead of going to the laundromat.
She said Harper and Tyrone Turner came to pick her up. But in the car, there was an argument about money.
When they got to Harper’s apartment, the woman said Turner pointed a gun at her.
Back in the car, the woman said she fought with Harper over her purse and phone, saying Harper took both. She said Turner dangled the purse out the window and threatened to drop it.
She said she realized they were not going where she thought they were in Beaver when she saw signs to Pittsburgh.
The alleged victim said Turner threatened that he was going to have her raped and murdered.
That’s when she said she got out of the car at a red light in Beechview and ran to an antique store and called 911.
“It’s quick thinking. It’s smart thinking,” Mosura said. “We don’t encourage anybody to fight or to put themselves in more serious danger. If you have the opportunity to escape, escape. If you have the opportunity to get out and run? Get out and run.”
The judge dropped the robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery charges from both Harper and Turner, after defense attorneys argued the couple didn’t rob or try to rob the victim.
The judge kept the kidnapping charges for trial. They’re due back in court in January.
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