A Washington state man is accused of kidnapping a Chicago Park District employee from a job site near Buckingham Fountain, then forcing him to withdraw cash from a bank and purchase Visa gift cards at stores in the Loop and South Loop. Prosecutors said the abduction and robbery appear to have been random.
A little after 4 p.m. on August 22, the 31-year-old Park District employee was cleaning the median near Ida B. Wells Drive and Columbus Drive when Marian Asa pulled up in a white Kia Sportage, according to a detention filing.
Asa, 26, of suburban Seattle, asked the employee if he spoke Spanish. When the employee approached the vehicle, two people exited the back seat and ordered him into the Sportage. They physically pushed him into the passenger seat, while Asa warned that his accomplices would hurt him if he did not comply, according to the filing…