San Leandro Police Seek Attempted Kidnapping Suspect Targeting Women
SAN LEANDRO (KPIX 5) – Police in San Leandro believe one man is behind the attempted kidnappings of several women in recent weeks.
According to authorities, the women were approached within days of each other on Washington Avenue and East 14th street.
One of the kidnapping attempts was thwarted by a Good Samaritan. It was just before 8 a.m. on July 28th when Yong-Song Leal was driving to work in San Jose, when he stopped a kidnapping in progress.
"A guy from the side of a car just jumped up and kind of spook her. I immediately saw her reaction and though that doesn't look normal," Leal told KPIX 5.
Leal stopped his car on Washington Avenue and jumped out.
"I just saw him dragging her in his car, he was spraying her in the eyes with mace and in the mouth. So, she couldn't see, she couldn't scream properly," he said.
San Leandro officers the suspect was dragging a 22-year-old woman walking to the bus into his car. Leal was able to stop him and save her.
"He started spraying me in the face," he said.
It was a pair of sunglasses that kept Yong-Song's vision clear enough that he could give details for a composite sketch to San Leandro officers.
The sketch jogged the memory of two other East Bay women who think they had a run-in with the same man.
Police said the first incident involved a woman in a neighboring city who was followed by a man driving a 2014 Nissan Sentra SR-4, with aftermarket modifications. The woman was able to run away.
"She was very spooked about that after she saw the news media reports on the attempted kidnapping here in San Leandro," Lt. Robert McManus of the San Leandro Police Department told KPIX 5.
In another incident, a woman said she was approached by the same man, in the same car near East 14th and West Juana Avenue.
"He pulled up alongside her and tried to engage her in a conversation," McManus said. "She herself was a little bit scared and quickly went in the opposite direction to avoid any kind of confrontation."
San Leandro detectives believe the suspect may be ramping up to something more violent.
"We tend to see similar patterns in which they take little steps, maybe firs they try to follow somebody in a conversation and each time they are building up that vicious courage to be able to go out and try that actual kidnapping," McManus said.
