BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 A 29-year-old man was arrested after investigators said Flock Safety cameras helped identify his vehicle in connection with the kidnapping and rape of an 11-year-old missing Bakersfield girl.<\/p>\n
The Bakersfield Police Department said on Monday, September 14th, 2026, BPD detectives with the Special Victims Unit (SVU) arrested 29-year-old Antonio Rafael Gomez Martinez on multiple charges, including kidnapping, rape of a child under 14, and child molestation.<\/p>\n
He was booked into Kern County Jail Lerdo Facility pursuant to an arrest warrant related to those charges.<\/p>\n
Bakersfield Police said Gomez Martinez made contact with an 11-year-old victim on Thursday, September 3rd, near her home. The victim was reported missing by a family member after 8 p.m. that night.<\/p>\n
Police said on Friday, September 4th, she was returned by the suspect to an area near her home at around 12:30 p.m. Through the victim\u2019s account of the suspect, the description of the suspect\u2019s vehicle, and the description of the location where the victim had been released, detectives conducted follow-up in the community and were able to find important suspect vehicle information, which, in conjunction with the use of Flock safety cameras, led to the identification of the suspect vehicle.<\/p>\n
According to police, after further investigation, this led to the identification of Gomez Martinez as the suspect, and he was arrested without incident.<\/p>\n
In a release, it said, \u201cFlock safety cameras were instrumental in helping to identify the suspect vehicle, leading to the identification and arrest of the suspect. Parents should regularly discuss personal safety with their children to include not going with someone unknown to them. These conversations should include cell phone, social media, and internet safety. We encourage parents to learn more about communication apps, what their children have access to, and regularly verify who may be communicating with them. Know where your children are, who they are with, and how to reach them.\u201d<\/p>\n
If your child is missing, report it immediately.<\/p>\n
This case remains under investigation.<\/p>\n
Anyone with additional information is asked to call Detective B. Gharib at (661) 326-3964 or (661) 327-7111.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 A 29-year-old man was arrested after investigators said Flock Safety cameras helped identify his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-466979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}