Suspect Arrested in Drug-Related Shooting

Authorities have arrested a man on suspicion of attempted murder in a drug-related kidnaping March 31 that led to a shooting and the separate kidnaping of two young girls, who were found unharmed.

Robert Charles Cummings, 32, was arrested Wednesday at his home in Richmond, Calif., on two counts of attempted murder and one count of assault with a deadly weapon, said Detective Richard Cesaroni of the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff’s station.

Cummings was allegedly involved in a drug deal in southwest Los Angeles that took several bizarre twists the night of March 31. Authorities said Cummings was one of four men who attempted to buy $150,000 worth of cocaine from another foursome. When the substance they bought turned out to be pudding mix, Cummings’ group allegedly kidnaped two of the sellers at gunpoint and headed north in two rented cars.

When the cars stopped at a gas station in Castaic, one of the kidnaped men fled into the bushes and another took a van with the girls inside, officers said. Cummings fired at one of the fleeing men but hit James Robison, 29, of Newport Beach, who was parked at the service station, Cesaroni said. Robison was treated at a Newhall hospital for a gunshot wound to the left arm.

The girls were found unharmed in the abandoned van later that night in Pasadena and were returned to their parents, who live in Wildomar in Riverside County. Two men were arrested that night, but authorities are still looking for Wallace Turner, 35, of Los Angeles, who allegedly kidnaped the girls, Cesaroni said.