A SUSPECTED SEX trafficking suspect was arrested in Westminster (Shutterstock).
Sex trafficking of a young girl; the suspect runs; a SWAT team is called and he’s finally arrested.
It may seem like an episode from a TV crime program, but it actually happened in Westminster recently.
According to the Westminster Police Department the incident started on Thursday, March 28 when the WPD received information that a 14-year-old girl was being trafficked for the purpose of prostitution by a suspect out of a local motel. The girl had been reported as a missing person from Kern County.
She was located and provided with victim services; she said she had been sexually assaulted by the man.
The next day police received a lead that the suspect was back in the city. Detectives found him and tried to take him into custody, but he drove away in a car that – at the end of the pursuit – crashed into two parked cars, disabling his.
He fled on foot and detectives searched his car, finding a loaded firearm.
Patrol officers and detectives were able to “contain” the suspect for several hours in the area of the 8000 block of 21st St. Eventually, the West County SWAT team was activated and found the suspect hiding in a backyard.
According to police records, arrested was Arthur Hester, 36, on charges of false imprisonment, lewd or lascivious acts with a child over 10 years old, enticing a minor female for prostitution and rape by force or fear, and being a felon in possession of a handgun.