Police in Georgia were searching Saturday for a man suspected of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl before leaving her in a parking lot on a busy road.
Friday afternoon, police responded to a report of a child wandering alone near a strip mall in Stone Mountain, said DeKalb County police spokesman Maj. Stephen Fore.
The girl told police a stranger had taken her from her home at a nearby apartment complex and then left her in parking lot of the mall. Officers brought the child to a hospital for an evaluation, where health officials discovered she had been sexually assaulted, Fore said.
While the child was in the officers’ custody, DeKalb County police received a call from the girl’s mother, reporting her daughter was missing from the apartment complex, according to Fore.
It was the victim’s 8-year-old brother who reported his sister had been kidnapped, police said.
Police said they are looking for a light-skinned black male in his early 20s, with long hair tied into a ponytail and a long beard. He is believed to be driving an early 2000s gray Hyundai.