Jul 2, 2008 8:35 am US/Pacific
Man Kidnapped, Held For Ransom In Reseda Home
RESEDA
Seven men and a woman were in custody Wednesday for allegedly kidnapping a man and holding him for ransom in a Reseda home, authorities said.
The eight suspects, whose names have not been released, were arrested after police raided a residence near Hart Street and Etiwanda Avenue around 4 p.m. Tuesday, Capt. Ruben De La Torre of the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Section said.
During the raid, police located the victim in the home's cluttered garage. The 24-year-old Latino had one eye swollen shut and cuts and bruises covering his face, LAPD Cmdr. Patrick Gannon told the Daily News.
He was listed in stable condition at a hospital, De La Torre added.
Police stormed the home just minutes after his captors threatened to kill him, the newspaper reported.
"We got a phone call that said 'Enough's enough, we're gonna kill the guy,'" Gannon told the Daily News. "They threatened to cut his fingers off at one point to show they weren't fooling around."
Gannon said investigators did not know why the victim was targeted, but that detectives were working through the night to figure out the motive.
On Monday night, "the family of a young man received a phone call saying that they had a male member of their family that had been kidnapped, and that they were demanding a ransom," Gannon said.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
