JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A woman is thankful to be alive after she says she was robbed at gunpoint at a Southside credit union last week. The man accused in that robbery is now behind bars.
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Hazzel Manzanares is still traumatized from this incident. She says she had never been in fear of her life until last Thursday, when she was robbed at an ATM -- something she’s still having nightmares about.
Manzanares spoke to us in Spanish and said, “I was very scared, and I cried a lot. I wake up every night looking at that man holding the gun to my head.”
A normal Thursday morning turned violent for Manzanares when she got cash from an ATM before work. Around 6:45 a.m., while at the VyStar Credit Union on Atlantic Blvd., she saw a man approach her.
“He got close to my car, and I stretched out my arm and I asked him, “What are you doing?” Manzanares recounts in Spanish. “And he put the gun to my head. I just looked at him kept my eyes locked on his. I told him, ‘okay, take the money.’”
Police say 37-year-old Jarvae Hines took 400 dollars in cash.
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“He could have killed me,” Manzanares said in Spanish.
Manzaneres says she was alone when she saw Hines. She says he was wearing a ski mask covering half his face.
When I asked her to identify the man, she said, “yes, that’s the man.”
She says no one else should ever go through what she went through.
“Go to the bank when it’s open, because you never know when there could be a person there to hurt you,” Manzanares said in Spanish.
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Hines was arrested Tuesday night after police say he attempted several more robberies at nearby locations.
Manzanares says she wants him to remain behind bars.
“I don’t want him on the Jacksonville streets bothering people, robbing them, and killing them.”
Manzanares says never in her 25 years of living in Jacksonville did she feel unsafe, until now.
“I don’t think Jacksonville is a safe city anymore,” Manzanares said in Spanish.
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Luckily, no one was hurt in this incident. JSO charged Hines with armed robbery in connection to this crime. When he was arrested Tuesday, JSO charged him with resisting an officer and attempting to escape from jail.