New police body cam footage shows standoff with accused Klamath Falls kidnapper
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (KPTV) - New details have emerged in the arrest of a Klamath Falls man charged with kidnapping and raping at least two women.
The FOX 12 Investigates team has obtained newly released police body camera footage that shows the accused kidnapper in a standoff with Nevada state police back in July.
On Sunday, July 16, Negasi Zuberi found himself cornered by the Nevada Highway Patrol. Body camera footage shows dozens of officers racing to the scene in the parking lot of a Walmart in Reno, Nevada. Officers were concerned Zuberi might be armed. Officers quickly pieced together that Zuberi was on the run from Oregon.
RELATED: Man accused of holding woman in cinder block ‘dungeon’ in Oregon home has pleaded not guilty
Both the FBI and responding officers to the Walmart in Reno say Zuberi’s wife and children were with him. During the standoff, one of Zuberi’s children was in the car with him, and his wife and other child were outside the car with police.
Back in early August after the FBI announced federal kidnapping and sexual assault charges against Zuberi, FOX 12 visited Klamath Falls and found the home listed in court documents where the FBI alleges Zuberi held the woman he kidnapped in Seattle in a cinderblock cell.
FOX 12 met a woman at the home in Klamath Falls who said she was Zuberi’s wife and with him on July 16 in Reno when he was arrested. She didn’t want her name revealed or face shown, strongly refuted the allegations made by the FBI against Zuberi, even claiming the structure the FBI says was a makeshift cell was actually just a bedroom Zuberi was building and planning to rent out.
In the Reno standoff, Zuberi surrendered after over an hour. His wife told FOX 12 when we met her in Klamath Falls that she and the children were unharmed, and took a bus back to Klamath Falls that day.
Zuberi’s federal trial is set to begin on Dec. 12. No court dates have been set for the charges he faces in Klamath County.
Copyright 2023 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.
