Baby among four Sikh family members kidnapped

MERCED, Calif. — A Sikh family, including an 8-month-old child, was kidnapped at gunpoint from their gas station in central California by a man who destroyed evidence to cover his tracks, authorities and a community organization said Tuesday.

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said the suspect took the baby, Aroohi Dheri; the child’s mother, Jasleen Kaur, 27; father Jasdeep Singh, 36; and uncle Amandeep Singh, 39, on Monday.

“We have no motivation behind it. We just know that they are gone,” Warnke said in a briefing posted on the department’s Facebook page.

Warnke said the kidnapper took the family from a business in the city of Merced but that he has made no ransom demands or contact of any kind.

Warnke wouldn’t identify the type of business the family was taken from, but Naindeep Singh, executive director of Jakara Movement, a Punjabi Sikh community organization in central California, said their family told him they were taken from their gas station and convenience store.

“They were in shock and worried about the family and the baby. They are in a lot of grief,” Singh said.

Singh said the family has asked for privacy.

The sheriff ’s department released two still images from surveillance footage of a possible suspect and asked for the public’s help in identifying the man. He’s seen wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt, dark shorts and a light blue disposable face mask.

Police warned the public not to approach the kidnapper, who they believe is “armed and dangerous” or the victims.

The sheriff said detectives believe the suspect destroyed unspecified evidence in an attempt to cover his tracks.

Merced is a city of 86,000 people about 125 miles southeast of San Francisco.