Alameda County prosecutors and Oakland police on Tuesday announced kidnap and rape charges filed in the case of an at-risk 16-year-old girl who walked away from a group home last week and was found in San Francisco two days later.
NBC Bay Area was first to report that the the man arrested is Gary Atkinson, 36, of San Francisco who has a previous strike against him.
Court documents show Atkinson was charged with three counts of rape on an incompetent person, kidnap and several lewd acts on a child. If he is convicted, he would need to register as a sex offender. The charges allege that he raped the girl at his San Francisco home over the course of at least two days, and that finally, she was able to escape. A Muni driver found her Thursday at 8 p.m. looking disoriented.
Police Chief Howard Jordan said he was "sickened" by the crime, and the girl's mother, who declined to speak publicly said she was grateful to police.
Records show he also has a past that includes petty theft, a burglary conviction, assault with a deadly weapon, spousal battery, gang enhancements, to name some.
He was arrested in the case of taking the teen girl - who is 16 but has the mental capacity of a 9-year-old - after she voluntarily walked away from the Fred Finch Youth Center at 3800 Coolidge Ave. in Oakland, where she lives.
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Staff members followed her to International Boulevard and 34Th Avenue, near the Fruit vale BART station, where they lost sight of her.
State officials are now looking into whether the Fred Finch Youth Center staff members acted appropriately.
