Man, 42, Pleads Not Guilty to Two Alleged Child Kidnap Attempts at Mission Valley Mall

A man who allegedly tried to kidnap two children days apart at the Westfield Mission Valley mall pleaded not guilty Tuesday to attempted kidnapping charges.

Rene Arturo Lujan, 42, is accused of grabbing two young girls on Tuesday and Thursday of last week. He was arrested roughly two hours after the second alleged kidnap attempt.

Lujan faces up to four years and 10 months in state prison if convicted of all charges, according to Deputy District Attorney Eva Kilamyan. He remains in custody without bail.

San Diego police said the first incident happened at about 1:30 p.m. June 18, when a man grabbed a 6-year-old girl who was pushing her younger sibling in a stroller. Lt. Daniel Meyer of the San Diego Police Department said the suspect first walked past the girl and her family, then started following them and grabbed the girl.

Meyer said the man carried her for a few feet until the girl started screaming, then he released her and ran off before fleeing the area in a black Chevrolet Volt.

Two days later, Lujan allegedly tried to grab a 5-year-old girl at the mall at around 2 p.m. and put her into a car, but an employee of a nearby business intervened.

Police were able to gather a description and license plate of the suspect’s car, Meyer said. The license plate number was entered into the police department’s automated license plate reader database, which alerted police that the car passed under a license plate reader in downtown San Diego on Thursday afternoon.

Officers pulled Lujan over at about 4 p.m. Thursday as he was driving on eastbound state Route 94 near Home Avenue in the Mount Hope area and arrested him, Meyer said.

Kilamyan said the investigation into the case remains ongoing, including the possibility of whether there are any other alleged victims.

“We are asking the public to give us any information they have on anyone else who may have been a victim in this case, whether reported or unreported, because the police are looking into whether this has happened to anyone else,” Kilamyan said.

“We do believe that there may be victims out there based on the fact that there are two incidents close in time. We are working on investigating to find out further and we would appreciate any information the public has to that regard.”

City News Service contributed to this article.