Ex-Boyfriend Held in Kidnaping of Woman

A 26-year-old woman was kidnaped at gunpoint Monday morning by her former boyfriend, who drove her around briefly in his Camaro before a Santa Ana police officer spotted his car and persuaded him to pull over and throw his gun out the window, police said.

Amanda Munoz, a Carson resident who works at Microsemi Corp. in Santa Ana, suffered a cut on her hand during a struggle for her ex-boyfriend’s gun, said Santa Ana Police Officer Leo Carillo. She was otherwise unharmed, he said.

Miguel Zamora, 26, a laborer who works in Irvine and lives in Carson, was arrested on suspicion of kidnaping, assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a concealed weapon, police said. Zamora was booked into the Orange County Jail, where he remained Monday night.

The incident began at 7 a.m. in the Microsemi parking lot in the 2800 block of South Fairview Avenue. Police said Munoz and her current boyfriend, Michael Contreras, a co-worker, were strolling through the lot when Zamora confronted them, drew a gun and led Munoz to his car.

Contreras immediately ran inside and telephoned police, describing the car and license plate, said Carillo, who was dispatched to the scene. In the meantime, the car’s description was broadcast over the county’s emergency radio channel.

A short time later, Munoz convinced her estranged boyfriend that she needed to stop at a pay phone to call her ill mother to assure her she was safe.

At a pay phone near Fairview and 17th Street, Munoz instead called Contreras at work and told him she was being held there, Carillo said.

Contreras again called police, reporting Munoz’s new whereabouts. Carillo broadcast that information over the Santa Ana police radio, where it was heard by Officer Oliver Grant, who was a few miles from the intersection where Munoz made the call.

At the corner of 17th and Main streets, police said, Grant saw what he believed was the Camaro and made a U-turn. Grant and several other officers persuaded Zamora to pull into the parking lot behind the Casa Palma restaurant. There, after several tense moments, Zamora was persuaded to toss his gun out of the car, police said.

Zamora was arrested before 7:30 a.m., officers said.