Gunman Rapes Girl, 12, on Her Way to School

SANTA ANA —  A 12-year-old girl walking to school Tuesday morning was kidnapped and raped after she took a shortcut through an alleyway and was confronted by a man with a gun, police said.

The unidentified eighth-grader was cutting through an alley off Highland Street to shorten her route to Lathrop Intermediate School when she was forced into a car about 7:25 a.m. and taken to an unknown site where she was raped, according to Police Sgt. Bob Clark.

An anonymous call from an apparent witness to the abduction had patrol officers scouring the blocks around the school, but they found no sign of the victim, her assailant or his car, police said.

The caller phoned twice, reporting first that a girl was being attacked and then to tell police that the assailant was driving off with the child, according to Lt. Dave Petko.

Both times, though, the caller refused to give his name and hung up before telling police the location of the attack.

“He was uncooperative, and when we asked for more information, click, he hung up,” Petko said. “We’re looking all over the place when he calls back the second time and says, ‘Hurry up, the car is getting away,’ Then he hangs up again.”

As officers continued their search, the victim’s uncle called police shortly before 8 a.m. to report that the girl had just arrived home and told him that she had been abducted and sexually assaulted, Petko said.

The attacker had driven her to Santa Ana Memorial Park--a short distance from the alleyway--and dropped her off, Petko said. The girl then walked back to her house.

The girl was “deeply traumatized” by the attack and was taken to Martin Luther Hospital in Anaheim to be examined and counseled, Clark said.

Investigators were hoping to interview her today to get more information about the suspect, who she could only describe Tuesday as a Latino man between the ages of 25 and 30 with an acne-scarred face and a white, four-door vehicle, Clark said.

School officials could not be reached Tuesday for comment, but Clark said investigators were in close touch with campus officials to share any new developments in the case and to pass on any parental alerts.

In May, police sought a man who tried but failed to abduct two children--a 12-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy--while they were returning home from school in Santa Ana.

However, Clark said there was no immediate information to link Tuesday’s attack to other incidents in the area. It was also not clear if the assailant had purposely selected an alley within blocks of a school, authorities said.

Police were trying to locate the anonymous caller, but they were not able to trace the man’s call because he did not use 911 lines but called the Police Department directly at a nonemergency number.

Investigators were also interviewing several other individuals who might have seen the suspect or his vehicle, Clark said, but he declined to elaborate on what those witnesses had told police.

“This is a terrible thing, and we are doing everything we can to get as much information as possible,” Clark said. “We want to get the information to the public too, so they can take precautions as necessary.”

Anyone with any information about the incident or the suspect is asked to call police at (714) 245-8363.