Convicted Murderer Named Suspect In Moore Kidnapping, Chase

A Moore woman is alive thanks to an armed citizen who stopped her kidnapper. 

Officers arrested Jonathan Williams, 39, in Norman after a dangerous pursuit.

Moore Police believe the convicted felon would have caused the woman and her family more harm if he got away.

“It is clear he didn’t have good intentions,” said Sgt. Jeremy Lewis, Moore Police Department.

Moore Police said Williams kidnapped the 64-year-old woman from her apartment near Interstate 35 and Southwest 19th Street Thursday morning in an attempt to get to her daughter.

“We believe he was going to find the victim’s daughter,” said Lewis. “Which is an ex-girlfriend.”

He reportedly doused the woman with gasoline and attempted to set her on fire. He then forced the woman into her car with a knife and took off.

Williams led officers on a high-speed pursuit through Moore, eventually ending near an OnCue in Norman.

Williams crashed the car and attempted to steal a truck from a Norman business.

“He took a lady out with him at knife point,” said Christian Churchwell, armed citizen. “Drug her over here to our business, demanded the keys to our truck."

Instead, Churchwell greeted the man with a gun. He was able to catch Williams off-guard and buy time for police to arrive. 

“When police grabbed ahold of him,” said Churchwell. “She got away from him, she ran to me and held me for a long time and crying.”

She escaped a man with a dangerous past. Williams was convicted in the 1994 brutal murder of an Oklahoma City firefighter’s wife. Police at the time said his motive was to steal a car.

This time he did not get away, thanks to an armed citizen.

“We’re lucky it ended the way it did,” said Lewis.

The female victim had a knife injury and was treated at the hospital and released.

Williams faces a number of criminal complaints including two counts of kidnapping, car theft, arson and assault with a deadly weapon. He will be booked into the Cleveland County Jail.