The family did take some precautions, said Bowman, who works for the state Department of Labor and Industries. Her husband talked to the seller on the phone and they agreed to meet at a public location.
But when the family – Cheryl, her husband, and their 11-year-old daughter and 20-year-old son – arrived at the Tacoma site, they were told the car wasn’t there. It wouldn’t be available for a few more days, according to her account and court records.
That’s when they were approached by a man calling himself Shawn. He told them he had a similar car for sale if they wanted to come look at it.
The Bowmans followed “Shawn” and another man for 15 to 20 minutes, winding down into a residential neighborhood, Bowman said.
“He showed me this Cadillac,” she said. “I said, ‘This isn’t what we’re looking for.’ It had ‘I hate you’ keyed into it. I told him, ‘I’m not interested in this, I’ll wait for that other one.’”
After the family got back into their car – parents in the front, kids in the back – a man walked up and stuck what looked like a .357 Magnum revolver through the open rear window and demanded money. Court records say the family saw “bullets in the cylinder.”
“My heart hit the floor,” Bowman said. “My husband said, ‘Punch it,’” she said, but their car was blocked in and they couldn’t escape. “My son said, ‘I just got jacked.’ Nothing like this has ever happened to us before.”
The gunman made off with $4,400 in cash Bowman’s son had under his thigh. The car they’d hoped to buy was to have been for him.
Finally, they were able to make their way down unfamiliar streets, eventually stopping at a day care, where they called police.
During interviews with police, Bowman’s 11-year-old daughter said, “Mommy, I got the three numbers of the license plate” of the car they had followed from the original meeting location, Bowman said.
The partial plate led police to Bobby Joe Ezra Plain, 21. Three of the Bowmans identified him from a photo lineup as being involved in the robbery, court records say. Further investigation led police to Lashad Tierre Alexander, 20, whom authorities believe was “Shawn.” One family member positively identified him from a photo lineup.
There is still a third suspect at large.
