Northridge Kidnapping Suspect In LAPD Custody After Arrest In Mexico
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — After a month-long manhunt, Mexican police captured fugitive suspect Tobias Dustin Summers and turned him over to Los Angeles Police on Wednesday.
The 30-year-old Summers is wanted in the kidnapping and sexual assault of a Northridge girl and is in custody at the Metropolitan Holding Center in downtown Los Angeles. He is reportedly refusing to cooperate with detectives.
Summers was reportedly found at a rehabilitation facility south of Tijuana in the town of La Mision, located between Rosarita and Ensenada, said to be popular with American surfers. A tip was received by a special hotline operated by the Los Angeles County Probation Department in Alhambra on Wednesday morning around 1a.m.
Summers was captured without incident and positively identified by a Superman tattoo on his chest, one of several known tattoos described by police.
"He had embedded himself into the community in various ways at that point and we were able to extricate him from there," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said. Mexican authorities said Summers was trying to blend in, living on the streets and reportedly working one day at a carwash.
Mexican authorities had put out flyers, and the FBI released a bulletin offering a $25,000 reward for the capture of Summers and linking him to a white supremacist street gang. Authorities believe that may have prompted the call.
"We'll hunt you. We'll find you. You cannot hide," Beck told reporters on Wednesday in reaction to the arrest in Mexico.
Summers, and his accomplice, 29-year-old Daniel Martinez, are accused of kidnapping a 10-year-old girl from the bedroom of her Northridge home on March 27. She was found about 12 hours later wandering around a San Fernando Valley Starbucks parking lot barefoot.
Summers and Martinez have been charged with kidnapping a minor under 14 and first-degree burglary with a person present. Summers was also charged with nearly three dozen counts of sexual assault. FBI agents and Los Angeles police escorted him over the border after 12:30 p.m., and he is being held on $19 million bail.
Martinez was arrested on April 1 and has pleaded not guilty to all counts against him.
LAPD Chief Beck told reporters on April 5 that authorities believed Summers had fled to Mexico and the FBI and Mexican police had been concentrating their search in the San Diego area and Mexican border since.
The kidnapping victim's family declined to comment on Summers' arrest. He is expected to appear in court on Friday.
RELATED:
LAPD Chief: Northridge Kidnapping Suspect Spotted In Mexico
2 Suspects Charged In Kidnapping Of 10-Year-Old Northridge Girl
Arrest Made In Kidnapping Of 10-Year-Old Northridge Girl
(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
