METRO OPERATORS RECOGNIZED FOR HELPING TO RESCUE ABDUCTED 6-YEAR-OLD GIRL

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 20, 2010                                                                                                                                Contact:  James Bolden 213-200-5314

                                                                                                                                                                           Aurelio Rojas 213-974-222

 

          SUPERVISORS RIDLEY-THOMAS AND KNABE RECOGNIZE    METRO OPERATORS WHO HELPED RESCUE ABDUCTED 6-YEAR-OLD GIRL

 

LOS ANGELES – Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Don Knabe today recognized the heroics of Metro bus drivers Cardell Stewart of Inglewood and Helen Brandon of Long Beach for helping authorities rescue a missing 6-year-old and capture her alleged kidnapper.

“We salute these two Metro employees for their quick thinking and actions that led to the quick recovery of the child, just hours after her disappearance,” Supervisor Ridley-Thomas said during the Board presentation.

The incident occurred on Sunday, February 21 at approximately 4 a.m., when a homeless woman riding a Metro bus in downtown Los Angeles told Stewart that she had fallen asleep on the bus, and when she awoke, her six-year-old daughter was gone.

The woman frantically told Stewart that a homeless man that she had recognized on the bus, but who was not a friend, was gone as well.  The description of the man and her daughter that she provided to Stewart was immediately transmitted to the Metro dispatch center and L.A. County Sheriff’s Transit Services Bureau deputies, where Metro drivers were alerted across the system.

Hours later, Brandon called Metro dispatch to report that the child and the suspect were on her bus at Vermont Avenue and 12th Street, where Sheriff’s deputies quickly intercepted the bus and the suspect was taken into custody on suspicion of kidnapping.  The child was recovered safe and unharmed.

 

“It is my pleasure to join Supervisor Knabe, and the Board as a whole, to thank these two Metro operators for embracing their responsibilities to the public by recognizing their duty to keep Metro as a safe and reliable way for County residents to travel,” the Supervisor said.

 

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