ST. LOUIS – A man accused of trying to kidnap women and later attacking people in Tower Grove Park made his first court appearance on Wednesday.

Austin Fitzgerald, 61, facing new charges of first-degree kidnapping and second-degree kidnapping stemming from an incident on Friday, Aug. 1.

"When officers arrived on scene, they located two females who were visibly shaken. They were distraught," Mitch McCoy, spokesman for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, said.

Fitzgerald is accused of kidnapping two women at gunpoint. Allegedly, he forced one into his own vehicle with him and the other was told to follow them in her own car. Both were able to escape.

"Thankfully, they're going to be physically okay. Obviously, now it's going to be the trauma associated with that type of inciden

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