By Kelsey Volkmann, The Examiner
2006-12-09 08:00:00.0
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Eldersburg, Md. -

By Kelsey Volkmann

Examiner Staff Writer

Police are searching for a suspect after a home invasion Thursday when two men tied up an Eldersburg family and kidnapped a son at gunpoint.

“It’s really shocking. I couldn’t believe it happened,” said Joyce Kraus, who lives along Sunset Drive, where one man climbed through a window of a house in the 2200 block to open the front door for another man.

The homeowner’s son, daughter and daughter’s fiancé were downstairs when they were accosted around 8:15 p.m. by the two men, who were both armed with handguns, police said.

One suspect struck the daughter, police said, and used a telephone cord, handcuffs and duct tape to restrain the three victims, who are all in their 20s, when another son, 25, came home.

An intruder handcuffed the second son, held him at gunpoint and forced him inside his car.

While one suspect remained at the home, another drove the kidnapped son to his place of employment, a check-cashing and bail bonds company in the 8100 block of Liberty Road in Randallstown.

A Baltimore County police K-9 unit arrested the kidnapping suspect, Ronald Jerome Presco, 36, of Baltimore, after a brief chase.

Presco was charged with kidnapping, armed robbery, robbery, false imprisonment, first- and second-degree assault and using a handgun in the commission of a felony.

Police are searching for the invader who stayed behind and described him as a black man, taller than 6 feet, with a large build and a gold front tooth.

He was wearing black clothing with a dark-colored ski mask.

Police withheld the victims’ names “out of concern for their safety.”

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com