ANTIOCH — A missing 7-year-old Antioch girl was found safe late Friday a few hours after being kidnapped from in front of her home at gunpoint by a man who had followed the girl and her mother from a Walmart, police said.
The 7-year-old was found safe at the Antioch Marina, just blocks from the police department. Police said she was inside a tan Toyota Camry along with 42-year-old David Allen Douglas, who was taken into custody.
Police said the girl had suffered no apparent injuries and was reunited with her family at the police station.
“I (had) been out following leads and (had) not seen” the girl, Lt. John VanderKlugt said. “But I walked in (to the police department) and all I heard was she was safe. That’s perfect.”
Little is known about who Douglas is, where he lives or why he allegedly targeted the girl, but police said during an initial news conference that Douglas had followed the girl and her mother home from Walmart on Lone Tree Way in Antioch.
Douglas had been positively identified in an earlier attempted kidnapping in Antioch on Friday, police said, but would not elaborate on where or when.
The Walmart was the scene of an incident Thursday evening in which officers responded to reports of a shooting and abduction attempt.
Walmart officials could not be reached for comment late Friday.
Police were summoned about 6:45 p.m. to the family’s home in the 3800 block of Hummingbird Drive, a quiet area off James Donlon Boulevard on Antioch’s south side.
As the girl’s mother was unloading her car full of groceries from Walmart, a man, believed to be Douglas, pulled up to the front of the home, got out of his car and tried to grab the girl, police said.
The girl’s mother tried to pull her daughter back as the man began dragging the girl towards his car, but he turned around and pointed a gun at the woman.
The man then shoved the girl into his car and drove off.
The neighborhood was quiet late Friday, the home seemingly pristine, its green front lawn clipped. A sign on the grass showed that the girl had participated in a Nutcracker ballet production recently. Her name was written on the sign in cursive in black marker.
The family’s cars were still parked in the driveway, and an upstairs light was on above the front door.
The only thing separating the home from its neighbors was crime scene tape, indicating what had happened just hours before.
Some neighbors peeked out from their windows to look at the two idling patrol cars and the news vans camped out on the street corners near the home. No one ventured outside into the cold, however.
The girl, who was wearing a pink jacket and scarf and gray leggings when she was taken, was reportedly all right when police found her.
Police did not immediately release any information on charges Douglas could face late Friday.
Check back for updates.
Follow Katie Nelson at Twitter.com/katienelson210.
