Suspect sought for trying to kidnap 2 girls at Salazar Park in East Los Angeles

EAST LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Sheriff's investigators are searching for a man who they say tried to kidnap two sisters at an East Los Angeles park.

The incident occurred shortly before 3 p.m. on Saturday at Salazar Park in the 3800 block of Whittier Boulevard.

Two sisters, both juveniles, were walking toward the water fountain near the restroom on the east side of the park when they saw their little brother speaking to a man they didn't know.

When the older sister asked her brother why he was talking to a stranger, the man grabbed the younger sister.

The older sister was able to pull her little sister from the stranger's grasp, but the man then grabbed the older girl and began pulling her toward the men's bathroom.

Investigators said the girl fought back, punching the suspect several times. She eventually got away, and the three children ran to their mother to report the incident.

The mother confronted the suspect, who fled the scene. She alerted authorities, but the suspect ran across Whittier Boulevard and disappeared from view, deputies said.

Detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Parks Bureau are asking for the public's help to track down the suspect.

The suspect was described as a Hispanic man, between 30 and 40 years old, 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighing around 160 to 180 pounds with short, black hair, mustache, goatee and brown eyes.

He spoke Spanish and had a tattoo of a dragon wrapped around his right arm and the head of some type of creature on the back of his hand. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and faded black pants.

If you have any information about this incident, you're urged to contact Sgt. Kemp with LASD's Parks Bureau at (909) 394-9705. You can also provide anonymous tips by calling Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.