A suspect in an attempted child abduction at the Westfield Mission Valley mall this week was arrested Thursday, hours after another attempted snatching that might be connected.
San Diego police officers pulled over Rene Lujan, 42, at about 4 p.m. as he was driving on eastbound state Route 94 near Home Avenue and took him into custody, public affairs Lt. Daniel Meyer said.
Police suspect Lujan in the original case, involving a 6-year-old girl, and continue to investigate a second incident Thursday that they said involved “very similar circumstances and suspect description.”
Roughly two hours before Lujan’s arrest, a bearded, dark-haired man who appeared to be in his early 40s grabbed a 5-year-old girl at the Camino Del Rio North shopping center and tried to put her into a dark-colored car before abandoning the attempt and driving off, Meyer said.
“SDPD is actively working that case to determine if it is tied to the first,” Meyer said in a news release that followed an earlier news briefing at SDPD headquarters.
In the initial incident, at about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, a would-be kidnapper followed a 6-year-old girl, who was pushing her 8-month-old brother in a stroller, through the Camino Del Rio North shopping center. He then grabbed the girl in front of her mother, according to investigators.
The man, who appeared to be about 40 years old, carried her off “a couple of feet” in the opposite direction. Moments later, the child screamed, and the man put her down and fled the area in a black 2013 Chevrolet Volt, California license No. 7VBS762.
Investigators were able to identify Lujan as the suspected abductor via the license plate, Meyer said.
They entered the plate into the department’s License Plate Reader (LPR) database and an alert Thursday signaled that the vehicle had passed under an LPR reader in downtown San Diego, prompting an immediate attempt to find the car.
No injuries were reported in either case.
Before the arrest, the perpetrator had been described as a bearded, roughly 5-foot-10-inch, 160-pound man with black collar-length hair. At the time of the Tuesday incident, he was said to be wearing gray pants, a bright-blue shirt, white sneakers and glasses, the lieutenant said.
– Staff and wire reports
Updated 6:20, 7:25 and 8:50 p.m. June 20, 2024
