Man arrested on kidnapping suspicion Costa Mesa...

Man arrested on kidnapping suspicion

Costa Mesa Police arrested a homeless man Thursday on suspicion of

attempted kidnapping after he grabbed an 18-month-old girl out of her

stroller.

The girl’s mother was pushing the stroller near Harper Park on

18th Street at about 1:40 p.m. when a man came up and told her the

child was not hers, Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Marty Carver said. The man

told her he was going to take the baby and grabbed the front of the

stroller, he said.

A passing driver stopped and distracted the man, allowing the

woman to take her baby and run home, Carver said. The man left in a

car, but was arrested by police one street over, he said.

Police arrested 55-year-old Douglas Anthony Magsamen on suspicion

of attempted kidnapping. He is being held at the Costa Mesa Police

Department jail on $500,000 bail.

It appears that the man had mental problems and the alleged

attempt was an isolated incident, Carver said.

Dog, rubber bullet

are used in arrests

Costa Mesa Police had to use a K9 officer and a rubber bullet to

subdue a man who allegedly evaded arrest Thursday afternoon.

Officers from the department’s special enforcement detail and

narcotics detectives from Huntington Beach Police Department went to

a home in the 1000 block of 18th Street to arrest 34-year-old Richard

Edward Willis on an outstanding drug warrant, Costa Mesa Police Sgt.

Marty Carver said. When officers showed up at about 3:30 p.m., Willis

fled on foot into the brush of the Talbert Regional Park, he said.

Officers found him hiding in a hole and ordered him to surrender,

Carver said. When he refused to do so, they sent a police K9 to pull

him out, but the dog wasn’t able to, he said.

Police shot the man with a rubber round from a .40-caliber shotgun

and he surrendered, Carver said.

Willis is being held at the Costa Mesa Police Department jail for

the outstanding drug warrant and for suspicion of resisting arrest.

He is ineligible for bail.

-- Marisa O’Neil