Authorities say a California pilot and flight instructor and his assistant kidnapped a foreign student and tried to deport him “back to China.”
Jonathan McConkey and ground instructor Kelsi Hoser are accused of kidnapping foreign student Tianshu Shi and trying to forcibly put him on a plane to China, KRCR News reported.
The pair showed up Thursday night at Shi’s apartment, which he shares with other students from the IASCO flight training school in Redding, Calif.
{mosads}Shi had been living in the U.S. for seven months and is one of dozens of Chinese citizens with student visas who come to train at the flight school, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.
They informed Shi that they were sending him back to China and would come return for him in the morning, according to a police statement.
When they returned around dawn on Friday, Shi reportedly refused to go with them.
Police say McConkey “battered” him and threatened him, the Post reported.
Shi managed to call his brother in Shanghai for help, who alerted Redding police to the alleged kidnapping.
Officers intercepted the student and rescued him before his accused abductors could put him on a plane at the municipal airport.
McConkey and Hoser were arrested and face charges for conspiracy and kidnapping, according to KRCR News. They were both being held on $100,000 bail on Friday and could not be immediately reached for comment by the network.
Shi told the Record Searchlight newspaper that the plan was for McConkey and Hoser to fly him to the Bay Area before putting him on another overseas flight to China.
It was not immediately clear why the pair may have singled out Shi.