Police rescued a kidnapped child unharmed in a Salem neighborhood on Saturday after a massive search triggered by the report that an armed man abducted the child and the mother, according to Salem police.
Police said they found Javier B. Munoz, 45, of Salem, hiding under a trailer with the child in a neighborhood north of Geer Community Park.
He was arrested on charges of first-degree kidnapping, unlawful use of a weapon and burglary.
Munoz has an extensive criminal record, according to state court records. He was released from prison last year after serving a sentence for second-degree escape.
The Salem Police Department said in a statement Sunday that an armed man entered the southeast Salem apartment of his estranged girlfriend at about 3 a.m. Saturday. He kept the woman and her “young child” inside for 12 hours before compelling them to leave with him.
Police said someone reported the abduction but authorities released no details about the source of the information. As police looked for the three, “a caller reported a man and woman struggling over a child.”
The caller directed police to the 400 block of Northeast Hawthorne Avenue, near the entrance to the community park and roughly three blocks north of State Street.
As police responded, the kidnapper fled with the child on foot towards the park.
“Patrol officers flooded the area in search of the pair,” the police statement said.
Salem got help from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Woodburn Police Department and the Oregon State Police. They searched for 2 ½ hours, deploying police dogs and drones.
The statement didn’t provide details on how the suspect was located. Munoz and the child were found in the area of Northeast Oregon Avenue and Bell Road, approximately two blocks north of the community park.
Munoz was lodged in the Polk County Jail in Dallas on warrants for other cases, Salem police said.
Court records show Munoz was arrested in Gold Beach, on the southern Oregon coast, in February 2022 for carrying a concealed weapon and being a felon in possession of a weapon.
An affidavit filed in court by a Gold Beach police officer said police responded to a report that Munoz pulled a gun on a man. The victim said Munoz normally carried a gun in the front pocket of his jacket.
Police found Munoz, who resisted their orders.
“As Munoz turned away I observed him lower his right hand toward his weighted right jacket pocket,” the officer wrote.
Two officers drew their weapons, ordering Munoz to his knees. He instead took off running, and was taken into custody in less than a minute. Police later found a .40-caliber pistol with 10 rounds in the area of the foot chase.
In November 2022, Munoz appeared in a courtroom at the Curry County Courthouse but fled when a judge ordered him jailed.
A month later, Munoz escaped while in custody in Linn County under circumstances not detailed in court records.
In January 2023, he pleaded no contest to the Linn County escape and was ordered to jail for 30 days.
In April 2023, he pleaded guilty to second-degree escape in Curry County in a plea agreement under which the gun charges were dropped. He was sentenced to 19 months in prison.
Following his release, Munoz faced a first-degree theft charge in Polk County for an incident last summer in West Salem.
According to a police affidavit, just after midnight on July 20 a woman handed a convenience store worker “a note that she was held hostage by her boyfriend.”
Police found the two in the parking lot and the victim told officers that Javier Munoz “recently got out of prison and showed up at her house.” She said she was afraid to ask him to leave because “she was afraid of what he could to her and their 2-year-old child.”
She wanted to call relatives for help but Munoz took her phone, the affidavit said.
Munoz told officers the two had argued “due to her speaking to other men while he was in prison.”
Munoz was arrested but later released. In September, Polk County prosecutors sought to revoke his release because he had contacted the victim when he was under orders not to. A Polk County judge on Sept. 18 issued a warrant for Munoz when he failed to appear that day for a court hearing.
Authorities couldn’t be reached to establish whether the victim in the West Salem case was also the abduction victim in the Saturday incident.

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Les Zaitz is editor and CEO of Salem Reporter. He co-founded the news organization in 2018. He has been a journalist in Oregon for nearly 50 years in both daily and community newspapers and digital news services. He is nationally recognized for his commitment to local journalism. He also is editor and publisher of the Malheur Enterprise in Vale, Oregon.