D.C. police on Friday released a short video of a man getting off an escalator and said they want to question him about missing 8-year-old Relisha Rudd and her alleged abductor, a janitor at a homeless shelter.
Authorities would not disclose the location the video was taken, or the man’s connection to the case. Police do not know who the man is, and they are urging anyone who does to call them at 202-727-9099.
“The Metropolitan Police Department believes this individual may have information and we are only seeking to speak with him,” the agency said in a statement.
The man is filmed walking off an escalator and walking away with both hands in the pockets of his dark pants. He’s wearing a leather jacket and a hoodie.
Police released the video a day after they ended a week-long search for Relisha in the Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens without finding any clues where she might be. “It’s heart-wrenchingly frustrating,” D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said as she announced the end of the search in the park on Thursday. She vowed that the search elsewhere would continue.
Relisha’s mother allowed Kahlil Tatum, a janitor at a homeless shelter where the family lived, to take Relisha on Feb. 26; the girl was last seen with him on March 1 in Northeast Washington. On Monday, searchers found Tatum’s body in a shed at the park. Police said that he apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and that his body had been there for from 36 hours to several days.
Police have said they think it is possible Relisha was killed by Tatum, 51.
Police said they concentrated their search on the park based on a tip and because Tatum was spotted there after he bought 42-gallon trash bags on March 2. Police first started searching for Relisha on March 19, after a counselor at her school inquired about her mounting absences and tried to find Tatum, who had been listed in school records as her doctor. Relisha’s mother never reported her missing. The next day, police found Tatum’s wife fatally shot at an Oxon Hill motel. Tatum was charged in her killing.