Crime & Safety
Would-Be Kidnapper 'Messed With The Wrong' School Girl
Los Angeles police are warning families about a brazen kidnapper while praising the wits of a young girl who managed to evade him.
LOS ANGELES, CA — Los Angeles police are looking for a man who brazenly tried to snatch a 10-year-old young girl off the street as she walked to school Thursday morning.
Detectives released a sketch of the man Friday in hopes that someone will recognize the distinctive red tips in his hair. The man is wanted in the "brazen daytime attempted kidnap of a school girl" near her elementary school, police said Friday.
The attack happened at about 7:45 a.m. Thursday as a girl walked to school in the 1700 block of Vineyard Avenue. The suspect approached the child and stood directly behind her. The girl turned around and saw him, then tried to hurry on to school, according to a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department. That is when he grabbed her backpack and said "Let's go," according to police.
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The little girl slipped out of her backpack and managed to run the rest of the way to school. The suspect was last seen running southbound on Vineyard Avenue and out of sight. School staff searched the area for the suspect, but he was not found, the LAPD said.
LAPD Capt. Tim Nordquist told Fox11 that the girl was courageous in the way she responded to the attack.
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"I just give this young girl so much credit for having the composure to -- number one -- run away; and -- number two -- to look back and get a good look at this suspect," Nordquist said.
"So, this little girl, she was the wrong person to mess with, because she knew what to do," Nordquist said. "She knew to run away, and (to) look back and see who that was."
Police released a composite sketch of the suspect, described as black, between 30 and 35, 6 feet 2, with a medium build. He has curly black hair with red tips and was wearing a blue shirt and black pants, police said.
Anyone with information about this attempted kidnapping was asked to call LAPD Wilshire Division Robbery Detective D. Slater at 213-922-8217 or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.
City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.
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