HOUSTON — Houston police are searching for a suspect who's charged with kidnapping and robbing his roommate in the EaDo neighborhood earlier this month.
Joshua N. DeLoach, 29, is charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon and aggravated kidnapping.
They're hoping surveillance video of the terrifying ordeal on May 8 will get the attention of someone who knows DeLoach and can tell police where to find him.
"I was shocked, I was confused, scared, nervous and that fight or flight instinct kind of kicked in."
Justin Iwuji, 31, said he had asked DeLoach to move out, and that's what set him off.
The Ring video shows them inside the townhome 300 block of EaDo Park Circle when the suspect approached Iwuji with a gun.
"Get on your knees," he demanded.
"What's the issue?" Iwuji asked.
"Get on your knees," the suspect repeated before grabbing the victim's phone and unplugging the Ring camera.
"Throws me a bandana and said, 'Cover up your eyes,'" Iwuji told us.
They went to the victim's room where he said DeLoach took his gun and Rolex and then opened Iwuji's cell phone and transferred $6,000 through Cash App.
Then he ordered Iwuji to go to the shower.
"Has me walk over and sit in the chair and grabs a pillow still holding the gun. And asks me,' Any last words? What do you have to say for yourself?'"
Then he gave him a choice.
"Do you want to do this here or do you want to gamble?" the suspect asked.
Iwuji answered, "I guess gamble."
Iwuji said DeLoach covered his head and tied his wrist and ankles and threw him in the back of his own SUV.
"I told him, 'We don't have to do this. If its money you need I can give you money. This isn't right,'" Iwuji said. "He told me to be quiet and continue to drive."
They drove from the near downtown neighborhood to northwest Harris County with a few stops along the way.
And during one stop the suspects got out of the vehicle and left.
Iwuji says he managed to free his fingers from the duct tape, pull the tape from his mouth and remove the bandana.
"I managed to take the tape off my ankles and I get up and run, and I run across a main street. There is a strip shopping center."
He ran into traffic and got a truck to stop.
"'Call 911, my roommate is trying to kill me,'" Iguji told the driver. "'I don't need to get in your vehicle, just in the bed of your truck.'"
That person called the police who were able to track down Iwuji's SUV on near Jones Road and FM 1960
"God was with me on that day for sure."
Anyone with information in this case or on the whereabouts of Joshua DeLoach is urged to contact the HPD Major Assaults & Family Violence Division at 713-308-8800 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.