Hunt Widens for Suspect in Child Abduction Attempts : Force Tried in Latest Incident Heightens Parents’ Concern

Police believe that a man who has been trying for more than two weeks to lure South Bay schoolchildren into a blue vehicle may be striking with increasing frequency over a wider area, raising fears among school officials and parents.

As of Thursday afternoon, police in Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Hawthorne had reported seven separate attempts--all of them unsuccessful--to abduct a total of nine children, aged 7 to 12.

“Now they’re coming more rapidly, and he’s moving into other cities,” said Sgt. Jack Zea of Manhattan Beach, where the first incident took place Sept. 13. “It’s almost like this guy just came out of nowhere. Until a couple of weeks ago, we hadn’t had anything like this.”

The most recent incident occurred Wednesday evening in Redondo Beach, where for the first time the suspect was reported trying to use force. Police say he reached out to grab a 7-year-old girl after she refused to get into his blue pickup truck, but the girl got away.

The man is described as being in his 30s, white or Latino, with a dark complexion, dark hair and a dark mustache, sometimes wearing sunglasses.

Police say he used the same approach each time: He told children that their parents had been injured and he would take them home or to school. In each case, the children did as they had been taught by their teachers and parents: They ran away.

The latest attempt caused some police officers to worry that the suspect is becoming more aggressive.

“That’s a very big concern,” said Hawthorne Detective Richard McCarroll. “We don’t care (which police department) gets him, as long as somebody gets him before it gets to that point.”

“So far, he’s been somewhat passive in his attempts,” Zea said Thursday morning before learning the details of the latest Redondo Beach incident. “It’s been verbal, and you don’t know how long he’ll go before he gets frustrated and he gets more aggressive.”

In one typical attempt, the man pulled alongside a pair of Hawthorne children and, according to McCarroll, said: “Your parents were in an auto accident, and you are to go with me to the counselor’s office.”

In the wake of the attempted abductions, police in Hawthorne, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach and Torrance--where a similar but unrelated incident took place Monday--have increased their plainclothes patrols around the schools in their cities.

Parents say they are driving their youngsters to school, or walking with them, rather than letting them go alone or with other youngsters.

“Whenever parents are gathered, the subject does come up,” said Linda Mack, president of the Manhattan Beach Intermediate School PTA. “I’ve heard people say they’re very glad that they’ve always picked their kids up, and other people say they’re making a point now of arranging for their child to be picked up.”

Thought Twice

Gail Alton, president of the PTA at York Elementary School in Hawthorne, said she thought twice Thursday morning about letting her sixth-grade daughter walk to school by herself for an early drama rehearsal.

“Normally, I would let her walk,” Alton said, although she added that she generally accompanies her children to school. “I didn’t this morning. I took her in the car. I said, ‘I’m not going to take a chance. I have to be extra careful.’ ”

The attempted abductions have also sparked a renewed awareness in South Bay classrooms, where learning to stay away from strangers is part of the curriculum.

Officials in several South Bay school districts reported that they have sent flyers home to parents or have circulated information about the suspect to teachers, who have been asked to reinforce the safety lessons their pupils have have already been taught.

“We’ve put every teacher on notice,” Sharon Andrade, assistant principal of Hawthorne’s York Elementary School, said Thursday. “Each of the classroom teachers was asked to give a simple, direct lesson that would not frighten any child but at the same time would keep them safe.”

‘All Buzzing About It’

Andrade added that “the children are all buzzing about it today. . . . They’ve all been told in class, and we’ve gone over all the precautions.”

“It’s dreadful news,” said Shalee Cunningham, Hermosa Beach school superintendent and principal of the only school in the district. “I’m out every day when the kids leave, and every blue truck I see, I stand and watch it until it leaves.”

According to police, children involved in five of the seven incidents reported that the man who approached them drove a blue pickup truck with a white camper shell. In the other two incidents, the children reported that the man drove a blue vehicle--in one case a Pontiac, in the other case a station wagon.

Police say these discrepancies do not change their theory that the incidents are related because in each case the suspect used the same conversation to try to lure the children into his vehicle. And in each case the description of the suspect was the same.

Concern Running High

Elsewhere in the South Bay, police have been alerted to the attempted abductions. Concern in other departments is running so high that for a time Thursday, Torrance police were reporting that the suspect had also been at work in their city.

In that case, which Torrance police later discounted as unrelated to the others, a man in a beige pickup truck approached a 13-year-old girl who was walking to school Monday morning. The man asked the girl if she needed a ride, and continued to talk to her when she refused.

Torrance Sgt. Paul Besse said police do not know if the incident was an attempted abduction. “I can’t say what was the intent of the suspect,” Besse said. But, he added, “It is unusual that a strange male would want to stop and talk to a girl. . . . Any case like this is significant.”

Times staff writer Hugo Martin contributed to this story.