Accused in Robberies : Youth Arrested in Girl’s Kidnaping

An 18-year-old high school student was arrested Sunday night after allegedly kidnaping a 15-year-old girl at Hart High School and persuading a 14-year-old girl to accompany them, authorities said.

The student, Shane Ray Ford of Santa Clarita, was arrested by Bishop police and California Highway Patrol officers just north of Bishop shortly after he robbed a Shell station in Bishop of $300, said Deputy Kathryn Nielsen of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Witnesses told investigators that Ford showed up at Hart High about 8:30 a.m. Saturday, half an hour late for a work assignment, Nielsen said.

The 15-year-old was serving a period of detention.

Shortly after a teacher admonished him for being tardy, Ford grabbed the girl in a headlock outside the classroom and dragged her screaming to an Oldsmobile, Nielsen said. When the teacher tried to intervene, Ford pointed a gun at him and threatened to shoot, said Sgt. Tom Taplin of the Sheriff’s Department.

About noon, a 14-year-old girl was reported missing, Taplin said. Witnesses told investigators that the girl voluntarily got into the car with Ford and the 15-year-old, he said.

Girls Unharmed

Ford was arrested about 9 p.m. Sunday after a high-speed chase, Nielsen said. The girls were unharmed, she said. Ford is also a suspect in two armed robberies Saturday in Sylmar and Agua Dulce, Taplin said.

The motive for the alleged kidnaping was unknown. But, Taplin said, “friends of the girls indicated that this was a mutually conceived prank when it started, but as the day wore on, it became clear that the girls got into a little more than they’d planned.”

The girls telephoned their parents Saturday night to say they were unharmed but that Ford would not let them come home, Nielsen said. Ford was armed with a stolen .45-caliber pistol, she said.

Ford used his mother’s cream-colored 1969 Oldsmobile, which he stole Saturday morning, Nielsen said.

A man matching Ford’s description and driving a cream-colored Oldsmobile robbed the Subway Sandwich Shop on Glenoaks Boulevard in Sylmar at gunpoint about 11 a.m. Saturday, Taplin said.

About 4 p.m., Ford robbed the Peppertree Store in Agua Dulce, Taplin said. In both incidents, a young girl was seen sitting in the Oldsmobile, he said.

Ford and two girls had been seen about noon at an undisclosed location in San Fernando as they drove by in the Oldsmobile on Sunday, Nielsen said.