Mayor Jeff Triplett was allegedly carjacked and robbed Saturday in the same suburban Orlando city where Trayvon Martin was killed.
WOFL-TV reported that Triplett, mayor of Sanford, Florida, was approached by three suspects, two of them armed, at 2:14 a.m. outside the home of a friend, according to authorities.
The Orlando Sentinel wrote that Triplett was forced to the ground by two of them, threatening to kill him, and allegedly took the mayor's wallet, $300 in cash, two credit cards, a bank card, and Triplett's city identification card.
The two armed men and the third person then reportedly took off in Triplett's 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML 350 after snatching the keys.
After Triplett made a 911 call, police spotted his vehicle leaving the area and followed it for 20 blocks before it was crashed. Two people were apprehended shortly afterward,
WESH-TV reported.
Sanford Police identified those arrested in connection with robbery and carjacking as Damarcus Paige, 17, and Jermine Horne, 18, WOFL-TV stated. Paige and Horne are believed to be the suspects who ordered Triplett to the ground.
Horne and Paige are each facing aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and carjacking with firearm charges, wrote the Sentinel. The newspaper stated that Horne also faces a contributing to the delinquency of a minor charge.
Authorities told the newspaper that they are looking for the third suspect in the crime.
"Being a victim of a crime is unnerving, yet it was reassuring to witness both speed and diligence from the Sanford Police Department," Triplett said in a written statement, who has been mayor of Sanford since 2010.
"It is disheartening when this type of crime takes place in the City of Sanford. I encourage the community, its businesses, and the Police Department to continue to work together and stop this type of violence," his statement continued.
The national spotlight was focused on Sanford in 2012 after teenager Trayvon Martin was shot in a gated community there by George Zimmerman, a Neighborhood Watch volunteer at the time,
wrote CBS News.
Triplett had expressed concern that Zimmerman was not arrested shortly after the crime, but stood behind the police chief at that time.
Zimmerman claimed self-defense and a Florida jury cleared him in the case of Martin's death in July 2013,
reported CNN. The shooting death and following protests helped give rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.
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