A man wanted in the attempted kidnapping of two children from an apartment courtyard west of downtown Los Angeles earlier this month may have tried again to abduct someone else, this time a woman walking down a street, police said.
The woman said she was walking about 9:15 a.m. Wednesday in the 2100 block of West Washington Boulevard in Mid-City when the driver of a Chevrolet van pulled up next to her and asked for directions, the Los Angeles Police Department said.
When she walked up to the van to help, the man exposed himself, had pornographic images showing on a cellphone and told her in Spanish, "Get in the van or you know what will happen," police said in a news release.
The woman said she also saw a gun in the cup holder in the center console. She ran away and called 911.
The man in the van was described as having dental braces with blue bands, which was the same description children provided to police of a man who attempted to abduct them just a few blocks away on Aug. 10.
In that incident, a man grabbed two children, ages 2 and 3, playing in an apartment complex courtyard and tried to carry them away, police said. When other children began to scream, the man dropped his would-be victims and fled.
The man in Wednesday's incident was driving an older model, white Chevrolet Astro van with tinted windows and a white utility rack on the roof, police said. The woman last saw him driving north on Oxford Avenue from Washington Boulevard.
Anyone with information was urged to call police.
