Man accused of kidnapping, locking woman in cinderblock cell tries to escape from Oregon jail
Man accused of kidnapping, locking woman in cinderblock cell tries to escape from Oregon jail
A man, accused of kidnapping a woman in Seattle and locking her in a cinderblock cell, tried to escape from an Oregon jail cell this week, deputies said.
MEDFORD, Ore. - A man, accused of kidnapping a woman in Seattle and locking her in a cinderblock cell, tried to escape from an Oregon jail cell this week, deputies said.
Officials said Negasi Zuberi, 29, was found standing on his bunk bed and the window in his cell was chipped Tuesday afternoon at the Jackson County Jail in Medford.
A maintenance worker outside the building told deputies that a suspicious noise was coming from inside one of the cells and deputies responded.
Zuberi was detained and sent through a full-body scanner. According to the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, deputies found an improvised tool that was suspected to have been used in breaking the window.
He was moved into a different cell with no exterior windows.
Woman’s escape from cinder block cell likely spared others from similar nightmare, FBI says
A woman who escaped her kidnapper by punching her way out of a homemade cinder block cell at a home in southern Oregon likely saved other women from a similar fate, authorities said, by alerting them to a man they now suspect in sexual assaults in at least four more states.
Zuberi was charged with second-degree attempted escape and first-degree disorderly conduct.
Last month, the FBI said Zuberi posed as an undercover police officer and kidnapped a woman in Seattle. He drove her hundreds of miles to his Oregon home, locked her in a cinderblock cell in his garage.
(FBI)
The woman punched her way out of the homemade cell, escaped and found help. Zuberi fled but he was arrested in Reno, Nevada.
Negasi Zuberi in Reno, Nev., on July 16, 2023, is accused of kidnapping a woman and holding her in a cinder block cell. (Washoe County Detention Facility) (Washoe County Detention Facility)
"This woman was kidnapped, chained, sexually assaulted, and locked in a cinderblock cell," Stephanie Shark, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Portland field office, said in a news release. "Police say she beat the door with her hands until they were bloody in order to break free. Her quick thinking and will to survive may have saved other women from a similar nightmare."
Investigators are still looking for additional victims after linking him to sexual assaults in at least four more states.
His trial date is set for Oct. 17.
The judge ordered Zuberi held without bail and appointed a federal public defender to represent him. A status conference was scheduled for Sept. 25 ahead of the trial before U.S. District Judge Michael McShane in Medford.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.