LANCASTER, Calif. — Two teenage girls abducted at gunpoint early Thursday from a lovers' lane were rescued after their kidnapper was slain in a shootout with sheriff's deputies 100 miles away, authorities said.
"The girls are safe," Los Angeles County Assistant Sheriff Larry Waldie said, ending a manhunt that had stretched across the Southwest.
The girls were found near Lake Isabella, a two hours' drive north of Lancaster.
Tamara Brooks, 16, and Jacqueline Marris, 17, were abducted about 1 a.m. in the Quartz Hill area of Los Angeles County by a gunman who left the girls' dates bound with duct tape.
The kidnapper was identified as Roy Ratliff, who was wanted on unrelated rape charges.
Kern County sheriff's Cmdr. Chris Davis said officers acting on a tip spotted the kidnapper's Ford Bronco and pursued it.
"There was a short pursuit" and the man crashed the Bronco, he said.
"We were able to rescue the females. The suspect ran off," but refused to surrender and was shot to death by deputies, he said, although he didn't know if the man returned fire.
Friends and relatives at the sheriff's command center here wept with joy and hugged when they learned the girls were safe.
"My little child Jackie, I can't wait to see her. I love her so much. If you're watching this honey, I love you, I can't wait for you to get home," said Jacqueline's father, Herb Marris.
"I couldn't be a happier man right now and hope none of you has to go through something like this," Tamara's father, Sammie Brooks, told reporters in Lancaster.
Sheriff's deputies said arrangements were being made to reunite the girls with their parents.
"When I get to see her and hold her, then that's when it'll all be real," said Nadine Dyer of Palmdale, Jacqueline's mother.
The abduction drew immediate national media attention after authorities launched an intensive hunt for the girls.
The case was the latest highly publicized child abduction in California this year. One man is on trial for the murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, who was taken in February from her home in a San Diego suburb, and another has been charged in the slaying of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion, who was snatched outside her Orange County home last month while playing with a friend.
In the Runnion case, authorities caught the suspect within days after getting a description from the girl's playmate and promoting it aggressively with the media.
Authorities in Lancaster also moved swiftly. They issued an "Amber Alert," using radio and television bulletins and electronic freeway signs to announce the abduction. The plan is named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old who in 1996 was kidnapped and later found dead in Arlington, Texas.
It was the first time it was used in California.