A man and two female accomplices were in custody Wednesday on suspicion of having briefly kidnapped the 3-year-old daughter of the man’s ex-girlfriend’s in Fallbrook.
The male suspect forced entry into his ex-girlfriend’s residence in the 200 block of E. Dougherty Street around 5:10 p.m. Monday, according to San Diego County Sheriff‘s Lt. Art Wager.
He was armed with a baseball bat and took the 3-year-old from a babysitter by force, throwing the toddler over his shoulder as he fled toward two women in a vehicle who were waiting for him outside, Wager said in a statement.
The babysitter followed the suspect outside and tried to stop him once more but was thrown to the ground, Wager said, adding that the babysitter sustained minor injuries.
The suspect fled in the vehicle with the women, but around 10 minutes later, returned the girl uninjured to her mother at her workplace in the 100 block of South Main.
Fallbrook sheriff’s detectives working the San Diego Fugitive Task Force later tracked the suspects to the De Luz housing section of Camp Pendleton and arrested Joseph Lawrence Smith, 22, Brenna Pauline Roskop, 21, and Taylor Hood, 19,
All three suspects were booked into the Vista jail on suspicion of charges related to kidnapping, conspiracy, burglary and assault.
The motive for the alleged kidnapping was unclear.
— City News Service
