2 Kidnaping Victims Returned Unharmed

Two El Monte children who were kidnaped by a transient outside a supermarket and driven out of the county were returned home unharmed after one of them escaped and notified authorities, police said Tuesday.

David Brian Johnson, 40, was being held in the El Monte City Jail on suspicion of abducting an 11-year-old boy and his 13-year-old sister after giving their mother a ride to a store, Detective Randy Lovelace said. Johnson drove away with the children while the mother was shopping, he said.

When Johnson pulled into the Wildwood rest area along Interstate 10, the girl escaped and alerted San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies, Lovelace said. Shortly afterward, a Riverside County sheriff’s deputy spotted Johnson’s car at a cemetery near Beaumont, arrested the driver and rescued the boy.