SOLVANG, Calif. (AP) - A young man driving a car linked to the disappearance of a Northern California girl was killed Thursday after leading sheriff's deputies on a high-speed chase and engaging in a shootout, a law enforcement official said.
Solano County Sheriff Thomas Ferrara told reporters that authorities believe the person who exchanged gunfire with officers at a Santa Barbara County mobile home park was "probably" Fernando Castro, 19, a suspect in the girl's kidnapping.
The missing girl, 15-year-old Pearl Pinson of Vallejo, has not been located, Ferrara said. Authorities have been frantically searching for Pinson since a witness reported hearing a girl screaming for help as a man dragged her across a freeway overpass in Vallejo on Wednesday morning.
"We continue our search, and we hope to find her alive," Ferrara said.
Authorities described the two teens as acquaintances, but emphasized that they believe Pinson was taken unwillingly.
The sheriff's department said Santa Barbara sheriff's deputies spotted the gold Saturn sedan Castro had been seen driving in Vallejo about 300 miles south late Thursday afternoon.
When the deputies pursued the car, the driver shot at them, stopped, got out and then fled into a different vehicle at a mobile home park in the town of Solvang, Ferrara said. More shots were exchanged before the driver was killed, he said.
No other details were provided. The Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department didn't return a call.
Authorities feared Pinson was in grave danger based on what the witness told deputies transpired on the pedestrian overpass on Wednesday.
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 and Pinson's cellphone on the overpass, and she has not been seen since.
The California Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert on Thursday asking motorists to be on the lookout for a gold 1997 Saturn sedan in which Solano County authorities think the girl may have been transported.