Police Continue Search for 3-Year-Old Boy Missing in Downtown L.A.

Police handed out flyers and searched dumpsters Sunday in hopes of finding a 3-year-old Indio boy who disappeared during a family shopping trip on a Christmas Day visit to Downtown Los Angeles.

Jesus J. Rodriguez said he last saw his son, Andy, in a video arcade, where Rodriguez had taken his two sons while their mother shopped.

Police printed hundreds of flyers bearing Andy’s photograph and description, giving them to Downtown merchants and passersby and pasting them on walls in the busy Broadway shopping district, said Los Angeles Police Officer Corinne Poisson.

Ten officers searched full time on Sunday, combing area streets and alleys.

“Any place a 3-year-old can squeeze into, we’re looking at,” Poisson said.

Rodriguez described Andy as about three feet tall, weighing 40 to 50 pounds, with blue eyes, brown hair and fair skin. He was wearing a red turtleneck shirt, black pants and white L.A. Gear tennis shoes.

Poisson cautioned that Andy may not still be wearing the same clothes.

“Look at the face, don’t look at the clothes,” Poisson said. Anyone spotting a boy fitting Andy’s description should study how he interacts with any adults he may be with, to see whether he is standoffish or cautious, she said.

Although Andy understands Spanish and English, he may be too young to be able to tell anyone where he lives, his father said.

“He’s a baby still,” Rodriguez said Sunday night.

Rodriguez said his family came to Los Angeles to spend Christmas with relatives. Esther Rodriguez took the couple’s baby daughter when she went shopping at a nearby store while Rodriguez and their two sons, 7 and 3, visited the video arcade at 724 S. Broadway.

Rodriguez wondered whether Andy wandered away to look for his mother. “Suddenly, he disappeared. I went to look for him, and I couldn’t find him anywhere,” Rodriguez said. He then called police.