Saturday, December 22, 2007

WANTED: Sexual Predator in Sylmar

Police are tight-lipped today on details about the 24-year-old Sylmar man they picked up in connection with the attempted kidnapping of a little girl last week in North Hills.

The suspected sexual predator is believed to be the same man who grabbed a teenaged girl's thigh near a convenience market just one hour before the toddler was snatched, and then dropped after another child started screaming.

"Further details will not be released, as this investigation is on- going," a Los Angeles Police Department news release stated, and officers said they were unwilling to add any details.

The suspect has been the subject of intense news media coverage owing to surveillance pictures that showed him clearly case out the apartment hallway, and then calmly pick up the child and start to carry her off.

A playmate of about 3-4 years of age is seen running alongside the man, apparently screaming. The man drops the child and walks away in the tape, recorded in the evening of Dec. 14.

Police think that sexual predator is the same man who earlier had accosted a 17-year-old teen who was walking to a nearby store, when she approached by a man from the front who rubbed her thigh. The man smiled at the teen and walked away.

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