Calif. girl still missing after kidnapping suspect killed in shootout
LOS ALAMOS, Calif. -- A man suspected of abducting a teenage girl in Northern California was fatally shot in a gunbattle with police after leading them on a high-speed chase near Santa Barbara, authorities said Thursday.
Solano County Sheriff Thomas Ferrara told reporters that authorities believe the person who exchanged gunfire with officers at a Santa Barbara County mobile home park was "probably" Fernando Castro, 19, a suspect in the girl's kidnapping.
The missing girl, 15-year-old Pearl Pinson of Vallejo, has not been located, Ferrara said. Authorities have been frantically searching for Pinson since a witness reported hearing a girl screaming for help as a man dragged her across a freeway overpass in Vallejo on Wednesday morning.
"We continue our search, and we hope to find her alive," Ferrara said.
Castro allegedly kidnapped the teenager in Vallejo on around 6:45 Wednesday morning, about 30 miles north of San Francisco, CBS affiliate KPIX reported.
The witness told Solano County sheriff's deputies Pinson was bleeding from the face and her kidnapper was carrying a handgun as he dragged her into a gold 1997 Saturn sedan.
An Amber Alert was issued, and Castro's car was spotted Thursday afternoon in Los Alamos, 140 miles northwest of Los Angeles and 300 miles south of Vallejo, the sheriff's department said.
Pinson and Castro knew each other, but the exact nature of their relationship was not immediately revealed by authorities, KPIX reported.
Pinson was wearing a grey sweater and black leggings and had her brown hair dyed green when she was last seen.