Prosecutors: Kidnap suspect had gun, bat, condoms

In raising the bond from $500,000, Judge Beverly Scarlett said Theodore James Walker poses a danger to women.

Walker, 26, of 108 Timber Hollow Court in Chapel Hill, is charged with second-degree kidnapping, assault on a female and assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury.

He participated the bond hearing Thursday morning via video connection from the Orange County jail.

Assistant Orange County District Attorney Morgan Whitney said during the hearing that investigators found a loaded shotgun wrapped in a towel on the back seat of Walker's car, as well as a baseball bat in the car and condoms in his back pocket.

Chapel Hill police said Walker tried to abduct an 18-year-old woman near the intersection of Rosemary and Columbia streets at about 2 p.m. Wednesday.

In a 911 call released Thursday afternoon, the frantic-sounding woman said she was jogging when a man doused her with pepper spray and grabbed hold of her.

"He started dragging me. I don't know what he was trying to do," she said.

Police said two brothers driving by saw the man pulling her to a car in the parking lot behind the RBC Bank at 101 E. Rosemary St. The brothers pulled into the parking lot to intervene, and the assailant let the woman go unharmed.

The assailant then drove off, hitting one of the brothers with his car, police said. The man was treated for minor injuries at UNC Hospitals and released.

The kidnapping suspect's vehicle was found abandoned at Mill Creek apartments. Walker was arrested about two hours later after police saw him walking out of a wooded area near Timber Hollow Apartments on Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Whitney called the incident a random attack, saying the woman doesn't know Walker.

A source told WRAL on Thursday that the woman is a student at the University of North Carolina.

Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall said Walker also is a suspect in the brutal beating of a woman in Pitt County, who remains in intensive care. Police found evidence in Walker's home that links him to that case, Woodall said.

Chapel Hill Police also are looking into the claims that Walker tried to get two teens to get into his vehicle a few days ago, prosecutors said. The teens ran off, and they told police they recognized Walker after seeing his photo in news reports of Wednesday's incident.

Public defender Natasha Adams told Scarlett that Walker suffers from mental illness, and his family isn't sure if he has been taking his medication. She said he has an economics degree from New York University has worked for the State Employees Credit Union for three years.

A spokeswoman for the State Employees Credit Union said Walker resigned in January, but she declined to say what his job was or where he worked.