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Abducted Boy Back Home With Family

Captors Apparently Cut Tot's Long, Curly Hair

By GILLIAN FLACCUS
,
AP
posted: 2 HOURS 8 MINUTES AGO
comments: 2220
filed under: National News
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SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (May 17) -- The 3-year-old boy abducted from his family by gunmen almost two weeks ago is back home Sunday, shorn of his long, curly hair, but apparently unharmed after being found wandering the streets of a Mexico border town.
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Briant Rodriguez rejoined his family after being hospitalized overnight for a physical and emotional evaluation. Police have not questioned him about his ordeal, but plan to do so in coming days after the boy has time to settle into his normal routines at home.
"Physically, he's in good shape. He was obviously fatigued," Cindy Beavers, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, told The Associated Press.
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"I'm sure there is some trauma from being apart from his family for two weeks," Beavers added, calling his safe return "an amazing outcome."
Authorities said Briant was kidnapped May 3 by two gunmen who burst into his family's modest home and tied up his mother and four of his siblings.
A local police officer found him wandering the streets of the border town of Mexicali late Thursday. His long, curly hair had been shaved but authorities said he looked fine otherwise.
"At some point when he's interviewed, he may or may not tell detectives when that happened and possibly who did it," Beavers said. She added that the boy will meet with detectives trained to question youngsters.
The Mexicali officer initially thought Briant was from the neighborhood and took him to several houses seeking his family before leaving him in child protective custody. Mexican authorities then contacted U.S. officials.
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Missing Children: Have You Seen Them? Report It Here
FBI agents traveled to Mexicali to handle immigration paperwork for the boy, who holds dual U.S. and Mexican citizenship. The agents then brought him across the border, where he was reunited with his mother, Maria Rosalina Millan, in Calexico on Saturday.
Gerardo Franco, a spokesman for the Baja California state prosecutor's office, said he understood Millan was not reunited with her son in Mexicali because she is an illegal immigrant in the U.S. and was afraid to cross the border.
Sheriff Rod Hoops declined to discuss Millan's immigration status, but he stressed that Briant is an American citizen.
"He was born in a hospital in San Bernardino and he has every right to be here," Hoops said. "That's why we worked so hard to get him back.
"I've been doing this for 30 years. I'm not saying it doesn't happen ... but the odds of finding him safe and alive — the odds of finding him alive — went down every day," the sheriff added.
He said authorities believed they were closing in on at least two men suspected in the abduction when the boy was found.
"We identified some suspects," he said. "I can't specifically say if the suspects let him go or if he wandered away, but I have to think the suspects let him go."
Federal and local investigators have said they were looking at several theories, including one that the Spanish-speaking kidnappers were from Mexico and may have had ties to organized crime there.
The kidnappers never demanded a ransom, and authorities said it didn't appear they knew the family.
Briant's father was at work and two of his oldest siblings were not home when the men burst into the house about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.
Briant's mother said the men tied her and her four other children up and robbed the family of money and property.
"They grabbed my kid, told me 'I'm going to take the kid to Mexico and I'm going to kill him,'" Millan told reporters in Spanish shortly after Briant was taken. When she pleaded with them not to take him, she said, they threatened to shoot her.
Associated Press writer Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles contributed to this story.
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Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2009-05-16 17:03:48
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jesusvotesrepub

08:53 AMMay 18 2009

this so called mother looks like she had menopause 8 years ago, i bet this is his grandmother, and shes claiming him as her child for the anchor, boy she loves this child so much she refused to goto mexico to see him because she illegal, it more important she get the american welfare then to see her "child" what kind of so called mother is this?

AVG RATING:
(2)

WLIEPKE

08:51 AMMay 18 2009

Faarroog....You sound like a black racist. We all must love one another. Rid your heart of anger. Life is beautiful.

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(0)

Brandimarie76

08:51 AMMay 18 2009

AMEN FOR THE BOY BEING HOME.. ON ANOTHER NOTE TO SOME OF THE COMMENTS ABOUT SLAVERY AND WHAT WE OWE. HELLO OBAMA'S MOTHER IS WHITE!! SHE RAISED HIM ALONG WITH HER FAMILY. HOW CAN CERTAIN PEOPLE SAY WHITE'S OWE THE BLACKS?? YA IT WAS TERRIBLE AND I NEVER EVER AGREED TO IT BUT NOT ALL WHITE'S ANCESTORS WERE SLAVE OWNERS. HOW ABOUT THE ONES THAT HELPED FREE THEM?? OR ARE FROM OTHER COURTRIES THEMSELVES? OK THEN THE ONE'S MAKING ALL THE COMMENTS ABOUT RACE DO YOU EVER SEND MONEY OR HELP OUT YOUR FELLOW BLACK MAN WOMAN OR CHILD IN THE DEPRIVED COUNTRIES YOU SEE ON YOUR T.V. DAILY?? I WOULD ASSUME NOT. AND YES I DO CONTRIBUTE BECAUSE REGARDLESS OF YOUR COLOR SEX OR ORIGIN PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE AND GOD MADE US ALL. AND IT'S EASY TO JUDGE ABOUT WHO GETS WHAT WE BETTER BE THANKING GOD THAT WE AREN'T AS BAD OFF AS SOME OF THESE COUNTRIES AND THAT WE HAVE THE OPTION TO GET SERVICES. WE HAVE IT MADE HERE.

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Q2D2

08:50 AMMay 18 2009

Im just so bored and tired of the word racism only being applied to whites. Blacks are the most racists set of people on this continent.

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(1)

Fergies mom 2

08:50 AMMay 18 2009

I am glad the child seems to have been unharmed. However, I do believe there is a serious element of crime under the kidnapping of this child. I only hope the authorities seek to find what it is, and they find it, and prosecute it. Nothing is going to be done about illegal immigration, if it were, it would have started long before this child was kidnapped. Why would 2 guys kidnap a 3 year old? It was to send a message to the parents, or someone within that family. Personally, I think it is Drugs. Someone owed some money. The family is LUCKY they didn't kill the child.

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Mmaria1003

08:49 AMMay 18 2009

I never notices how bad racism is until I got aol. I never really look at people color before, I treated everyone like I would want to be treated . If they treat me bad, I will do the same no matter of color or where they are from. I teach my children the same. I can not hate someone for there color or where they are from.

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THESNAKE00666

08:49 AMMay 18 2009

Faaroog..........**** OFF YOU DIRTY SMELLY RAG HEADED KNEE-GER OF FILTHY CAMEL F#CKING MUSLIM........... THE ONLY RIGHT YOU HAVE IS TO EAT MY SHlT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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D AND D SWEET

08:49 AMMay 18 2009

Hiya Farooq! I'd recognize that trolling, potstirring persona anywhere! Don't buy it people! Farooq's as white as they come!

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rrdl3105

08:48 AMMay 18 2009

illegals smuggling drugs should not be allowed; IMPEACH OBAMA NOW

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jesusvotesrepub

08:47 AMMay 18 2009

SpringKrazie08:44 AMMay 18 2009I find it disgusting that so many people have turned this story into a debate. So many children are being abducted and murdered, <~~~~~~~XXX~~~~this is actually a myth you dumb idiot, only about 100 kids are abducted a year by strangers, that is not a lot. and not all are killed. check the stats, though about 5 children are murdered everyday on average by their parents mostly by mothers, a child is in my danger by being with his mother then running loose around the block

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