Lakeside

A 9-year-old Lakeside boy was kidnaped, molested and sodomized Sunday afternoon by a man who offered to buy him a Coke at a convenience store, authorities said.

Police arrested Luis Hernandez Quintana, 26, an illegal alien from Sonora, Mexico, who claimed to live in Lakeside, in connection with the case, said Sgt. Ron Cottingham of the Sheriff’s Department child abuse unit.

Hernandez approached the boy in a video arcade about 4:30 p.m. and offered to buy him a soda, Cottingham said. After making the purchase at a 7-Eleven store, he dragged the boy to a culvert under California 67 near Maple View Street in Lakeside and attacked him, he said.

“The boy was able to break free one time, but the guy grabbed him, brought him back and continued to assault him,” Cottingham said. After the assault, the assailant admonished the boy not to tell anyone about the incident, but the boy immediately went to a phone and dialed 911, then gave a description of the assailant when a sheriff’s deputy picked him up, Cottingham said.

“This child was brave enough and had the presence of mind to go and call,” Cottingham said. If the boy had not notified police so quickly, the attacker probably would have gotten away, Cottingham said. A sheriff’s deputy arrested Hernandez in the 12000 block of Lake Shore Drive about 10 minutes after the Sheriff’s Department received the call, and the boy identified Hernandez as the assailant, Cottingham said.

The boy was treated at Children’s Hospital and released.

Hernandez was booked into the County Jail downtown and is being held on suspicion of kidnaping for lewd purposes, child molestation by force and sodomy by force.