UPDATE May 27, 6:34 a.m. - (AP) - Authorities in California are searching for a teenage girl, hours after the man accused of abducting her died in a gunfight with sheriff's deputies.
Witnesses say they saw a bloodied 15-year-old Pearl Pinson being dragged away by a man Wednesday morning on a freeway overpass in Vallejo.
But authorities say they haven't found the girl, even after Thursday's shootout in Santa Barbara County that killed 19-year-old suspect Fernando Castro.
UPDATE 5:30 p.m. - SOLVANG, Calif. (AP) - Television stations are reporting that the 19-year-old man suspected of kidnapping a teen girl in Northern California was killed during a shootout with police in Santa Barbara County.
KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara said medics confirmed Fernando Castro of Vallejo died in a mobile home park in Solvang where he allegedly fled.
The Solano County Sheriff's Department tells television station KTVU in Oakland that Pearl Pinson, the 15-year-old Vallejo girl in whose disappearance Castro was a suspect, has not been located.
Solano County authorities have been frantically searching for Pinson since a witness reportedly heard a girl screaming for help as a man dragged her across a freeway overpass in Vallejo on Wednesday morning.
4:36 PM - LOS ALAMOS, Calif. (AP) - Authorities say Southern California police pursued a man wanted in a teen girl's abduction and engaged him in shootout.
The Solano County Sheriff's Department said the suspect was spotted driving near Los Alamos in Santa Barbara County without the girl. After a brief pursuit, he engaged Santa Barbara County Sheriff's deputies in a shootout.
The Solano County Sheriff's Department didn't say whether anyone was shot. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department didn't return a phone call.
ORIGINAL: Authorities in Northern California are frantically searching for a 15-year-old girl whom a witness reportedly heard screaming for help as a man dragged her across a freeway overpass.
The Solano County Sheriff's Office fears Pearl Pinson may be in grave danger based on what the witness told deputies transpired on the pedestrian overpass in Vallejo on Wednesday morning.
The witness reported seeing a girl with a bleeding face pleading for someone to help her as a man armed with a handgun pulled her along. Officials say the witness ran for assistance and heard a gunshot.
Deputies found what appeared to be blood on the overpass, and neither Pinson nor the man they identified as 19-year-old Fernando Castro of Vallejo has been seen since the incident.
Pinson last was seen wearing a grey sweater, black leggings and hair dyed green.
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