photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured in March of 2022. The center houses the Douglas County District Court and other county services.

A 65-year-old man was hooded and bound with tape at gunpoint before being taken to a “concrete tomb” where he thought his kidnappers would kill him, according to a recently released police affidavit.

Charged in Douglas County District Court in connection with the incident is Tahreon Allen, 20, of Lawrence, and Mustafa Darrell Muhammad-Springs, 19, of Kansas City, Kansas.

Both are facing one count of aggravated kidnapping, one count of aggravated robbery and one count of aggravated residential burglary, all high-level felonies. Allen also is charged with one count of felony possession of a firearm by a felon, according to charging documents, as the Journal-World reported.

A third person, Jean Willy Petit Frere, who was not in custody as of Thursday afternoon, is facing the same charges, according to a complaint filed Wednesday.

According to an arrest affidavit in support of Allen’s arrest, the incident began in the middle of the night on May 30 in the 4600 block of Nicklaus Drive when the 65-year-old man was awakened by three men who put a pillowcase over his head and bound him in duct tape before demanding $100,000.

The men then placed the man in the backseat of his Mercedes-Benz and drove him at high speeds to what the man believed to be the Kansas City metro area. The man told police he could hear the driver and passenger speaking in “heavy Nigerian accents” before the car pulled over and the driver and passenger traded places with two other men who did not have accents. Those men drove around for a time before hitting a curb in Lawrence with the Mercedes, flattening the tire, according to the affidavit.

The man was then transferred from his Mercedes, still bound with his face covered, to the back of his Porsche SUV. The man told police he believed he was in his Porsche because he could feel familiar items moving around in the back of the vehicle, including an electric drill that struck him in the chin, according to the affidavit.

The man was then returned to his residence, where he was transferred into his Ford F150 truck. The man told police he was driven around for hours before the truck finally stopped at an apartment complex and he was removed from the vehicle, according to the affidavit.

The man told police that he still had the pillowcase on his head and was bound as he was led down a slippery grass hill onto a set of concrete steps, down a sidewalk and into what the man described as a “concrete tomb with a dirt floor.” The man said that he believed the men would kill him there, according to the affidavit.

About an hour passed before the men attempted to take the man back to the pickup truck. That’s when a security guard in the area noticed the man with a pillowcase on his head. The security guard took the pillowcase off of the man’s head and pulled him away from the men, who then fled on foot and in the truck, according to the affidavit.

The man told police that there were several people who took him that he could not identify but that in October 2022 Allen had stolen his Mercedes and he believed that Allen was involved in his kidnapping. The man was held for around 10 hours, and the men took about $15,000 from him, according to the affidavit, which does not specify how the money was taken.

After the man was freed, police were able to track his Porsche driving through Lawrence and to Hallmark, 101 McDonald Drive, where Allen reportedly worked. Police were able to arrest Allen but not before a short foot chase. Police found a pistol in Allen’s backpack, according to the affidavit.

Police also identified a woman who had been traveling with Allen in the Porsche, and she told police that Allen had picked her up around 3 that morning. She corroborated the victim’s story and said that she and Allen while driving the Porsche had followed the other men, whom she did not know, first in the Mercedes until it was wrecked and then in the F150. She said Allen took her on a shopping spree later that day at The Legends in Kansas City, Kansas, according to the affidavit. The woman has not been charged in connection with the incident.

Both Allen and Muhammad-Springs are being held on a $1 million bond and are scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 9, when the state will try to show probable cause for them to stand trial.

Allen is also charged with one count of felony burglary and one count of felony theft for allegedly stealing the same man’s Mercedes in October 2022.

Allen was convicted of two felony counts of aggravated burglary and one felony count of aggravated battery in November 2020, when he was a juvenile, according to court records.