Two Dominicans were key to the rescue of three kidnapped women in Cleveland, according to news reports. It was revealed that an unemployed 32-year Dominican, Angel Cordero, was the person who really made the difference in the release of the three US women, 23 year old Gina de Jesus, 32-year old Michelle Knight and 27-year old Amanda Berry, who were kidnapped and held in a Cleveland neighborhood home for 10 years. Cordero says that Charles Ramsey got all the credit because his own lack of fluency in English prevented him from communicating with the media.
Cordero says that Ramsey showed up after the first woman, Amanda Berry had escaped. “I did what had to be done,” he said. He expects that the truth will be known once Berry tells the story, as reported in an interview in Spanish newspaper, El Pais.
El Pais reports that on Monday 6 May, at 6pm, his neighbor Aurora Marti ran to tell him that a girl was screaming in the house opposite. “I crossed and I saw Berry screaming and pounding the door,” said Cordero. “I asked if there was a fire inside and she said no, that she had been kidnapped for 10 years,” he said. He tried to open the door but it was chained, so he kicked the door until the bottom part broke. Berry then escaped from what had been her jail for a decade. He says that he told her to run in case her kidnapper returned but she went back inside for her six-year old daughter.
El Pais says that according to Cordero, Ramsey arrived on the scene when Berry said there were two more girls jailed inside, after Aurora Marti called Ramsey for help. He considered going in, but then decided against it, said Cordero. He called 911, but some time after Berry had done so. Another neighbor, Altagracia Tejeda – also a Dominican – was the person who lent Berry her phone first. “If the person who broke the door is the hero, then that is me,” said Cordero with half a smile. If [Ramsey] wants to make himself the hero, that is his problem.”
CNN Espanol interviewed Cordero on Wednesday, 8 May so he could describe his role in the case. He told CNN he had been visiting two women on the porch of a house across the street.
Cordero has lived in the US since 2011 but speaks little English.
He described how Berry had succeeded in cracking open the inner of two front doors but that the outer door was closed with a chain. “I tried to open the door, but I couldn’t, so I gave it a few kicks,” he said. Berry was then able to escape through the bottom of the door, but returned to pick up her six-year old daughter and then left. He said that when she left with the little girl, she said, ‘Let’s get out of here because, if this guy comes, he’s going to kill us. If he finds me here, he’s going to kill me and he’s going to kill you.'” She went to Altagracia Tejeda’s house and called 911.
A former school bus driver, 52-year old Ariel Castro has subsequently been charged. Prosecutors in Ohio say they may seek the death penalty in the case of the man accused of the kidnap and rape of the three women who were held prisoner at his home for years. They are also considering placing aggravated murder charges against him, stemming from the forced miscarriages that police say were suffered by one of the women. The city of Cleveland has already filed kidnapping and rape charges against Castro and bond was set at US$8 million.
www.cleveland.com/decade-of-captivity/
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/09/us/ohio-cleveland-escape/
www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/05/08/_angel_cordero_cleveland_kidnapping_nobody_s_praising_the_less_flamboyant.html
http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2013/05/09/actualidad/1368115215_126024.html