Dwayne Fletcher is being called a hero for helping police get a jump on the abduction of Carlesha Freeland-Gaither this week. But he doesn’t see himself the same way.
“I’d do it all over again, but better next time,” the father of four said Thursday night. “I just felt like when she was gone, it just felt like I lost her.”
Fletcher was walking along Greene Street near Coulter in Germantown Sunday night when he heard a blood-curdling scream come from behind. He ran back to the 100 block of Coulter Street to find Freeland-Gaither being pushed into a car by a man. That man turned out to be 37-year-old Delvin Barnes, now charged with kidnapping in the case.
He yelled at the man, but the 12-inch knife in the suspect’s hand kept him from getting too close.
“He heard me because I was screaming ‘Yo you! Watcha doing? Yo you!’ I don’t know if her screams overpowered mine, but [the suspect] was moving fast though,” the man said.
The 33-year-old called 911 as he watched the rear passenger window of the gray Ford Taurus blow out. Fletcher thought it was a gunshot. He would later learn Freeland-Gaither kicked it out trying to escape.
Moments later, the car, and the young woman he didn’t even know, sped off. Again, he called police. He picked the 22-year-old victim’s smartphone and glasses up off the ground. Officers arrived shortly after.
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“I just cried and cried. I don’t even know her, but it just happened. I feel as though I didn’t do enough at the time,” he said.
Detective Jim Sloan, who led the investigation into finding the woman, doesn’t agree.
“If it wasn’t for him I don’t think the same outcome would have happened. This man is a hero,” Sloan said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said having Fletcher at the scene, providing information about the kidnapping, sped up the investigation.
“I’m not a hero,” Fletcher said.
A recycling worker, Fletcher has a troubled past. He’s been shot and spent time in prison, but has been working to turn his life around. He got his GED and started college. Now, he counsels youth about staying on the straight and narrow.
Sloan believes Fletcher should get the $47,000 reward that was being offered for information in the case. Fletcher said the money would definitely help, but that the best reward is the fact he sleep knowing Freeland-Gaither is home safe and Banes is in custody.
