Suspect identified in kidnapping and assault of 10-year-old girl

Los Angeles police on Saturday named a suspect in the kidnapping and sexual assault of a young Northridge girl this week as a 30-year-old transient with an extensive criminal history.

Tobias Dustin Summers, who was last released from jail on Jan. 19 after serving a brief stint for a probation violation, is the primary focus of the police investigation, LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese said at an afternoon news conference at LAPD headquarters downtown.

Summers has a criminal history dating back to 2002 that includes arrests for kidnapping, robbery, explosives possession and petty theft, Albanese said. He is not a registered sex offender.

The girl told investigators that two men were involved in the incident and that she was taken to multiple locations in different vehicles, according to law enforcement sources. She was found bruised and scratched Wednesday near a Starbucks about six miles from her home.

But police said that Summers was the primary focus of their investigation.

“We’re trying to go through this slowly and methodically because we don’t want to overwhelm her. She’s a 10-year-old girl,” LAPD Capt. William P. Hayes said after the news conference.

The girl’s mother told authorities she last saw her daughter in her room about 1 a.m. Wednesday. About 3:40 a.m., police said, the mother heard a noise. When she went to check on her daughter, the girl was gone.

Authorities combed the area house by house, and the FBI joined the search. Shortly before 3 p.m., a man spotted the girl in a parking lot about six miles from her home and pointed her in the direction of nearby police.

LAPD officials said they believe the girl was dropped off at a Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Woodland Hills. She then walked toward the Starbucks.

Law enforcement sources have said that detectives were trying to determine whether there was any connection between this case and a high-profile international child abduction in 2008.

Public records and court documents indicated one of the children kidnapped in the 2008 case was a relative of the Northridge girl.

Police said Saturday that so far there is no clear connection.

More than 20 detectives and the FBI are working on the Northridge case.

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