Detroit Woman Gives Birth After Being Lit on Fire, Shot in Father's Plan to Eliminate Baby
LaTonya Bowman, a 22-year-old pregnant woman from Detroit, Mich., was kidnapped, duct-taped, set on fire and shot Saturday in a plot allegedly by her former boyfriend to get rid of the child. However, she survived and managed to give birth Tuesday morning.
Bowman reportedly went to the movies Friday night with Jamal Rogers, the 22-year-old father of her child. However, Rogers was reportedly upset that he was about to have a third child, after having two other children with two different women.
The father of a three-year-old and one-year-old child reportedly rode with his ex-girlfriend to his house in Warren, Mich., where he lived with his mother, a current girlfriend and roommate. Rogers reportedly told his roommate Antonio Mathis that he did not want another child, which the housemate allegedly said he would take care of.
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After Bowman drove her ex-boyfriend home, his roommate allegedly duct-taped her eyes, mouth and hands at gunpoint before throwing her into the backseat of her own car, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Mathis is believed to have driven Bowman toward I-94 and I-75 until they reached what Bowman told police was an open field. Then, Mathis allegedly poured lighter fluid on Bowman and lit the pregnant woman on fire.
The new mother rolled out of the car in attempt to put the fire out when she was shot, the Detroit Free Press reports. At that point, she decided to pretend she was dead after being shot twice until her alleged attackers fled the scene. The authorities suspect that Rogers planned the attack and had followed behind Mathis in another vehicle, according to The Associated Press.
When the men left, Bowman drove to a Shell gas station where she was able to contact her mother who rushed her to the hospital and contacted authorities. Days after she had stabilized and was transferred to another hospital, the woman gave birth three weeks early. The newborn was reportedly in intensive care.
Warren Police Deputy Commissioner Louis Galasso lauded Bowman, who suffered burns to her face, back and torso after the ordeal.
"She has to be one of the most courageous women I have ever encountered," Galasso said in a Detroit Free Press Report. "She had the will and instinct to live."
