AUGUSTA — A transient man who had been living in basement of a Northern Avenue home was arrested Wednesday in connection with last month’s armed kidnapping of a woman from a Walmart parking lot.

Shawn A. Doray, 33, was still being interviewed by police Wednesday evening, said Augusta Police Detective Lt. Keith Brann. The charges pending against Doray included armed robbery and criminal restraint or kidnapping.

Brann said Doray was expected to be taken to the Kennebec County jail once the interviews were complete.

Investigators are certain that Doray is the man who on Dec. 20 , armed with a weapon, kidnapped woman as she walked in the dark to her car parked in the Walmart parking lot, Brann said.

“The investigation revealed that this was a totally random act,” Brann said. “The victim and suspect were not previously known to one another.”

Doray’s arrest comes after police recently released additional details of the confrontation, including the robber’s claim that he needed money to help his son. Brann did not confirm whether Doray had a child, but published reports from last summer indicate that Doray and an unidentified 9-year-old boy were taken to the hospital with minor injuries after a car crash on North Belfast Avenue.

Brann said the additional information released publicly spurred a bevy of tips that led to Doray’s arrest Wednesday morning.

“The successful investigation would not have been possible without the assistance and cooperation of the community,” Brann said.

Police have said the man confronted a woman in the Marketplace at Augusta Walmart parking lot about 5:20 p.m. on Dec. 20. As the woman walked back to her car, the man showed her a weapon — police won’t say what kind — and he forced her into the passenger seat of her car.

The robber wanted to force the woman to withdraw money from an automated teller machine, police said, but the woman convinced the robber she was unable to make a withdrawal.

The robber drove south into the city, stopping near 40 Mount Vernon Ave., which is near Augusta Mill Park and Bond Brook. He then fled with an undisclosed amount of money he took from the woman, leaving her to drive herself to a nearby store, where she called police about 5:50 p.m.

Doray has a criminal record dating back to 1997, when the then-18-year-old was one of four people indicted for burglary and theft in connection with $4,000 in computers and equipment stolen from the former Cony North Alternative School. Published reports do not list the result of that indictment.

Doray, who in October was fined $150 for a conviction of attaching false plates, has in the past been convicted of operating after suspension, assault and criminal mischief.

Brann said reports of the woman’s kidnapping were disturbing, both to police and residents.

“Crimes of this nature are not the norm for the city,” Brann said. “From the response of citizens, it is not something that will be tolerated.”

Craig Crosby — 621-5642

ccrosby@centralmaine.com

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