Inside horror lair of man accused of impersonating officer and kidnapping woman

03 August 2023 , 16:37

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Images released by the FBI show exposed plaster and hanging wires along with a solitary chair in the makeshift cell (Image: AP)

These images show the interior of a sinister cell allegedly used by a man accused to impersonating a police officer before kidnapping a woman and holding her captive.

Negasi Zuberi is accused of kidnapping a woman in Seattle before driving her to his Oregon home and locking her in a makeshift cell.. Zuberi, 29, allegedly told the woman he was an undercover officer, showed her a badge, pointed a stun gun at her, and placed her in handcuffs and leg irons before putting her in the back of his vehicle, the complaint said.

He is also accused of targeting women across the US in a series of violent sexual assaults. Police have now released pictures of the cramped, windowless cell the woman was forced into- with exposed wires hanging from the ceiling and draped across the floor.

The walls of the cell also show exposed plaster, with a solitary chair sitting at the centre of the grim room. Zuberi now faces a federal interstate kidnapping charge, and authorities said they are looking for additional victims after linking him to sexual assaults in at least four more states.

The makeshift cinderblock cell that Negasi Zuberi, 29, is accused of keeping the victim in (FBI of Oregon)

Negasi Zuberi is accused of posing as a police officer before kidnapping the woman (AP)

A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon states: "The cell was made of cinder blocks and a metal door installed in reverse so it could not be opened from the inside."

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Stephanie Shark, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Portland field office, said in a news release: "This woman was kidnapped, chained, sexually assaulted, and locked in a cinderblock cell. 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.”

Horrifying detail reveals the victim was allegedly taken on a seven-hour journey on July 15 to the cell in a garage. The woman “briefly slept and awoke to the realisation that she would likely die if she did not attempt to escape,” the complaint states.

The makeshift cell in a garage of the Oregon home (AP)

She started banging on the door and eventually broke it open. The complaint states saw Zuberi’s vehicle parked in the garage, opened it, grabbed his gun, and took off, leaving blood on a wooden fence she climbed over to escape, the complaint said. She flagged down a passing driver who called 911.

After the woman escaped from his home in Klamath Falls, 29-year-old Zuberi fled the Oregon city, but was arrested by state police in Reno, Nevada, the next afternoon, the FBI said. According to the complaint, Zuberi also went by the names Sakima, Justin Hyche and Justin Kouassi, and he has lived in multiple states since 2016, possibly including California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, and Nevada.

Abigail O'Leary