Bozeman Man Accused of Kidnapping Woman
On Tuesday, July 16, a Bozeman police officer responded to a report of a disturbance on N. Hanley Ave.
The dispatch notes indicated that a man walked up to a car with a female sitting in the driver's seat. The man then reportedly punched the passenger window out and got inside of the vehicle. The woman driving the vehicle then apparently quickly drove off with the man still inside of the car.
Several witnesses at the scene told the officer similar stories that described the incident between the man and the woman.
The witnesses said the man pulled up in a van with the words "Air Controls" on it, exited the van and then approached the car that the woman was sitting in before punching out the window.
The officer on the scene was able to contact the owner of the Air Controls business, who gave the officer permission to enter the van in order to find out the identity of the man.
After locating paperwork in the van that named David Nazari-Cohen as the technician driving the van, the officer moved forward in the investigation operating under the assumption that Nazari-Cohen was the man suspected of being involved in the incident.
A short time later the car suspected of being at the center of the investigation returned to the scene on N. Hanley Ave. The officer states that Nazari-Cohen was driving the car as it approached him and the suspect appeared to look surprised to see police on the scene.
According to the officer, Nazari-Cohen then quickly drove down a side street in order to avoid the scene. The officer then got into his patrol car and caught up to the car being driven by Nazari-Cohen. The suspect vehicle came to a stop.
The woman jumped out of the car, telling the officer that she wanted to distance herself from Nazari-Cohen. The officer told her to remain at his patrol car while the investigation progressed.
Soon after the officer noticed that Nazari-Cohen "had blood all over his pants, a cut on his right hand that was bleeding, and there was glass strewn about all over the inside of the car."
Nazari-Cohen was placed in handcuffs and placed in the back of the patrol car.
While speaking with the woman, the officer learned that she and Nazari-Cohen were in a relationship together and he was upset that she was not responding to his attempts to contact her.
The woman said that while she was in her car outside of her home, Nazari-Cohen pulled up in his van and then approached her vehicle, smashing the window and then instructed her to drive.
The woman said that while she was driving toward a secluded area, Nazari-Cohen grabbed her by the hair and smashed her face into the side of the car and punched her in the face 3-4 times.
Once the woman eventually stopped the vehicle, she said that she tried to calm Nazari-Cohen down but that instead he punched her 3-4 more times. She later told police that she was "seeing stars" and was "dazed" from the alleged beating.
The woman said that it was at this point that Nazari-Cohen took control of the car and began driving back to N. Hanley. He allegedly told her he was going to get duct tape and complete a kidnapping of her.
According to the woman, Nazari-Cohen had threatened in the past to tape her hands, feet and mouth while kidnapping her and transporting her to California.
Once the pair were back at on N. Hanley is when the officer made contact with the suspect vehicle.
The suspect reportedly told police that the reason he punched out the car window was because the woman had locked her keys in the vehicle.
Nazari-Cohen was placed under arrest for Aggravated Kidnapping and transported to the Gallatin County Detention center.
Police note that charges relating to the alleged physical contact between Nazari-Cohen and the woman will be addressed "in the very near future."