The parents of a 2-year-old girl who was the subject of an Amber Alert after she was abducted at gunpoint in Chatsworth were being interviewed by police early Thursday.
The girl and her father, 27-year-old Louai Nayel Issa, were found at 10:40 p.m. Wednesday in the Westlake neighborhood. The girl, Lanees Issa, was unharmed, said Los Angeles police Sgt. Stacey Vandersall, adding that the girl’s mother also has been detained and that she was being interviewed separately from the father.
Neither had been booked by early Thursday morning, Vandersall said.
Police were alerted to the presence of the missing girl in Westlake by the manager of the nearby apartment complex where the father lived, Vandersall said. A perimeter was established and the father was taken into custody without incident, he said.
The abduction occurred about 2:05 p.m. Wednesday, according to the California Highway Patrol. At the end of a supervised visit, Issa, a Jordanian national, pointed a handgun at a Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services worker who had custody of the child, said Lt. Bob Long of the LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division.
A second Jordanian man arrived in a getaway vehicle during what appeared to be a pre-planned abduction, and both men drove off with the girl, Long said.
The girl’s mother, who was not present at the supervised meeting, may have had knowledge of the plan and investigators want to speak with her, Long said.
The child had been taken into DCFS custody because of her parents’ history of drug-related neglect, according to Southland authorities.
The girl and her father were the only occupants of the vehicle when it was found in Westlake, Vandersall said.
— City News Service