Fear reigns after reported abduction

Judging by the roughly 300 parents and children who showed up at Jackson Elementary School on Tuesday night, the northwest Salt Lake community is a bit nervous after a 7-year-old girl was apparently abducted and raped Friday afternoon in broad daylight.

Police called the meeting at the school, 750 W. 200 North, in an effort to calm residents' fear. They offered parents suggestions on how to keep their children safe.

But with the suspect still at large, many remained nervous.

"I've been worried about it all along that something like this would happen," parent Bryan Orgill said. "It's going on and there's a lot of people out there that do this kind of junk."

Police urged parents to form neighborhood watch groups and call police when they notice suspicious activity. But some Hispanic residents said they are fearful of setting up neighborhood watch programs because police sometimes do background checks on neighborhood watch participants. Some worried those background investigations would include immigration checks.

"Immigration won't be called to form a neighborhood watch," Sgt. Isaac Atencio assured the crowd. "We don't care what nationality you are, if you're documented or undocumented."

Police had the following advice for keeping kids safe:

• Talk to children about the adults they know and see if there are any the children feel uncomfortable around. Many child rapes are not perpetrated by strangers but by people the child knows.

• Tell children never to talk to or ride in cars with strangers.

• Have a family code word. If a person doesn't know the code word, warn the child not to go anywhere with them.

Tiffany Sandberg, president of the Jackson parent-teacher organization, told parents to make sure their children travel and play in groups.

"A child who's alone is a target," she said.

Sandberg also urged parents who drive their children to school to patrol around the school once or twice and report suspicious persons or activity.

Such vigilance could prevent incidents like the one that happened Friday when the 7-year-old was playing with other children in her neighborhood near 800 W. 30 North at about 3 p.m. At one point, one of the children noticed the girl was gone, police said.

Eventually, the group saw the girl running toward them in a panic from 900 West. Police said it is unclear how long the girl was missing. The girl told the group of friends she had been kidnapped and raped in a car.

The car is reportedly primer gray with black on the bottom of the doors and is likely a late 1970s or early '80s model muscle car, according to police. The seats were a blue color and the alleged abductor was a man in his 50s with scars on his face.

Salt Lake Police Sgt. Fred Louis said the man had been in the neighborhood for some time before the incident. He urged anyone with information to contact police.

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E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com