Police: Sexual Reason for Girl's Abduction
June 9 -- Police are planning to charge the suspect in the violent abduction of a 9-year-old girl from her San Jose, Calif., home with sexual assault, authorities said today.
Assistant Chief Thomas Wheatley of the San Jose Police Department told The Associated Press that the kidnapping, which was recorded by a neighbor's surveillance video camera, appeared to be a sexual abduction and that police have physical evidence of a sexual assault.
The suspect, David Montiel Cruz, is also being booked on suspicion of kidnapping, burglary, robbery, and assault with a deadly weapon, Wheatley added.
Police arrested Cruz today in a predawn raid at the home of a friend, just eight hours after he apparently released the girl on Sunday night, and less than a mile from her home.
The suspect tried to fight off officers and was taken to the hospital after a police dog bit him, police Sgt. Steve Dixon told the AP.
Cruz fits the description given by the kidnapped girl and her mother and brother, both of whom fought with the kidnapper, San Jose police Chief William Lansdowne said.
The suspect also has injuries that match those that the girl's mother said she inflicted on the kidnapper, and has a vehicle that looks like the one the kidnapper was seen driving in a neighbor's surveillance video that recorded the abduction, he said.
"We're very confident this is the right person," Lansdowne said.
The chief investigator in the case, Deputy Chief Rob Davis, confirmed what police had said they believed all along — that the abduction was not random.
"There is a link through the children," Davis said. "The victim has a friend who is related to somebody who knows the suspect."
The girl was the subject of a statewide Amber Alert after she was kidnapped from her San Jose home on Friday. She walked into an East Palo Alto convenience store Sunday night and told the store owner that she was in trouble. He called police.
Isa Yasin, the owner of the shop, said he did not see anyone drop off the girl. "She was crying and scared," Yasin said.
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