San Diego police are looking for a man who ripped a gold necklace off the neck of a middle school student in the Grant Hill area last week.
The armed robbery occurred Friday, April 27, while the 13-year-old victim was standing near the intersection of 26th Street and K Street waiting for her mom to pick her up from school, police said.
“It was a child at a neighboring school who'd been approached by a man who got out of his car and grabbed her by the shoulders," Ann, the mother of a student at a neighboring school, told NBC 7.
At about 3:30 p.m., a white, 2014 Hyundai Elantra parked along 26th Street, near where the girl was standing.
A man got out of the car, walked up to the girl and pointed a knife at her stomach, police said.
"The suspect told the victim not to scream and that he would come back and hurt her if she called the police," San Diego CrimeStoppers said in a written release.
The suspect's vehicle had black paper plates with an unknown silver colored design in the center of the plates, police said. There was temporary registration paperwork displayed on the passenger side of the front windshield, police said.
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The man was described as stocky and approximately 5-feet, 8-inches to 6-feet tall. He was wearing dark clothes with a black cloth covering the lower portion of his face, police said.
Ann said her child's school gave parents advice to "be on the lookout and be sure all the children, if they're walking in the neighborhood, are at least with a buddy, so to be vigilant."
San Diego CrimeStoppers is offering $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.
Anyone with information can call SDPD’s Central Division at (619) 744-9517 or the Crime Stoppers anonymous tip line at (888) 580-8477.
