By Matt Zapotosky
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 28, 2008

A Lexington Park man accused of forcing another man at gunpoint to drive him and a companion to the District to buy drugs was charged Tuesday with kidnapping and related counts.

Dajuan Antwan Stafford, 23, was being held in the St. Mary's County Detention Center on unrelated assault allegations when he was charged Tuesday, court records show. According to police, Stafford forced a Lexington Park man, whom he did not know, to drive him from St. Mary's to the District, where a drug deal was conducted, and then back.

Investigators connected Stafford to the kidnapping through evidence found in the victim's car, said Lt. Rick Burris, commander of the St. Mary's Bureau of Criminal Investigations. He declined to discuss that evidence.

According to police, the ride started about 1:30 a.m. July 12 in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven in Lexington Park. There, Stafford and another man ordered the victim at gunpoint to drive them to Washington, but not before they stopped in Charles County and forced the victim to withdraw money from an ATM, Burris said.

Once in the District, the two men picked up two passengers and bought and used what the victim thought was crack, Burris said. They then ordered the victim to drop off the passengers and return to Lexington Park. Somewhere near Pacific Drive, Burris said, Stafford and the other man ordered the victim to drop them off.