Charged in kidnap, carjack, he says he meant no harm

Reginald McNeill had pepper spray, handcuffs and tie-up cord ready when he ambushed, kidnapped and carjacked a Montgomery County waitress after she left work early Sunday.

Still, the 53-year-old Logan man swears he meant no harm.

"I wasn't going to hurt her or hurt anybody. I'm sorry deeply," a shackled and hangdog McNeill told reporters yesterday morning as officers escorted him to his arraignment in Abington.

Police rejected that claim, saying that McNeill is a convicted sex offender, burglar and prison escapee released in March 2009 after serving 27 years for a 1978 rape and other felonies.

"He is truly a vicious person," said Abington Police Chief William J. Kelly. "He spent over half of his life in jail already. In the short time he was out, he's proven that he's not capable of being amongst people in society without wanting to hurt them."

Police say that McNeill jumped a 20-year-old woman about 1 a.m. Sunday, after she had finished her shift at the Kitchen Bar, on Old York Road near Jericho.

The woman had parked in a dark, secluded section of a parking lot behind a nearby Blockbuster Video store, where McNeill lay in wait, Kelly said. McNeill doused her with pepper spray that police suspect he had stolen from a car he'd broken into the night before in that area, Kelly added.

He then forced her at knifepoint into her car, the chief said.

As McNeill demanded money and threatened to kill her, he drove about seven miles before stopping at Broad Street and Olney Avenue, where he tried to handcuff his victim, Kelly said.

But the woman decided to fight for her life.

The pair tussled for five minutes, falling out of the vehicle during the fight. McNeill panicked and ran off; the victim got back into her car and drove for help. She was treated at Abington Memorial Hospital for minor injuries.

"She certainly was incredibly courageous," Kelly said. "Her tenacity is probably the reason she's still alive. There's a lesson here for future crime victims, when you understand that someone isn't going to release you, that they mean you harm."

Detectives quickly identified McNeill as the attacker, using the victim's description and information from Cheltenham Township, where officers had investigated McNeill recently for suspicious behavior, Kelly said.

Following two tipsters' advice, police went to a home at an undisclosed location in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening. McNeill wasn't there but soon pedaled up on a bicycle. When he spotted police, he fled, but police caught him within minutes without further incident, Kelly said.

He was being held on $1 million bail on kidnapping, robbery and related charges.

Court records show that McNeill, whose last known address was Wingohocking Street near 11th, was a repeat prison escapee and parole violator whose most recent offense occurred June 7, when he broke into a building. He was scheduled for a pretrial conference in that criminal trespass case Aug. 10.