Crime & Safety

Illegal Immigrant Arrested in Kidnapping, Attack of Girl

Police say the 30-year-old man took a 9-year-old from her Riverside home and later pushed her out of his car.

A 30-year-old man suspected of abducting and assaulting a 9-year-old Riverside girl from her home as she slept was behind bars today.

Jose Wilson Rojas Guzman, 30, who had rented a room from the girl's mother, was booked Monday night on suspicion of attempted murder, kidnapping with injury and aggravated child sexual assault in connection with the girl's May 7 abduction.

Guzman was originally questioned May 9, the day after the girl was found, said Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz.

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“He was uncooperative, uncooperative to the point of refusing to disclose where he lived,'' Diaz said.

According to Diaz, Guzman is in the country illegally and was turned over to federal immigration authorities. Police report that Guzman’s DNA matched DNA collected from the girl and crime scene, Diaz said.

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The child had been recovering from her injuries as Loma Linda University Medical Center, but has been released, said hospital spokesman Herbert Atienza.

The child, whose identity was not released, was asleep with her older brother and younger sister in a second-story apartment in the area of Pike Street and Herman Drive when she was forcibly taken on May 7, police said.

The child's mother was at work and had left the boy in charge of watching his sisters, officials said.

Police believe Guzman got into the home through a window. The other two youngsters were not harmed during the kidnapping.

The youngster was found wandering in the area of Giles Court, adjacent to the La Sierra University campus, about 2 1/2 miles from where the abduction occurred in early morning hours of May 8. Police say she was disoriented had been knocking on doors in the neighborhood asking for help.

The youngsters told officers she had been carried out of the home by a man and that she was later pushed out of a car.


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