Tobias Summers ID’d As Suspect In CA Kidnapping

Police have identified the man suspected in the kidnapping last week of a 10-year-old California girl as Tobias Dustin Summers, 30, and have enlisted the public in attempting to find the parolee.

Tobias Summers is believed to be responsible for abducting the girl, whose name has been redacted from media reports in the event she has been the victim of a sexual assault, before abandoning her following the kidnapping.

According to California police, Summers is a parolee released early due to prison crowding problems in the state. LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith says Summers is thought to have abducted the young girl from her Northridge home before abandoning her in a Woodland Hills Starbucks.

Smith urged anyone who encounters the kidnapping suspect to immediately call police, and said:

“We really need the public’s help to take this guy into custody. If they see him, we can’t emphasize enough, call 911.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is aiding in the search for Tobias Summers, and Bill Lewis of the local FBI division says that even if Summers flees the state, the FBI is employing all available resources to locate him:

“Should he leave the state, we will have multitude of resources throughout the United States and international if necessary to take him into custody.”

When the girl was found safe, Los Angeles Police Captain William Hayes said that finding the men responsible was a massive priority for the LAPD:

“We have a 10-year-old girl that’s been traumatized here, she was forcibly taken from her home … If these individuals are brazen enough to do that, I’m putting all the resources I have to make sure they don’t do it again.”

The girl said that another man assisted in her abduction, and that neither suspect was known to her. The black pickup truck used in the kidnapping was located nearby, but police have not identified any second suspects in the case.