The suspect is described as dangerous and a high priority because officials don't believe this is the first time he's targeted a little girl.
"We have a little 9-year-old girl who is very shaken, this is a traumatic incident for her," Ofc. Johnna Watson of the Oakland Police Department said.
The incident happened on Monday on the 1200 block of 94th Avenue, just after 6 p.m.
Police say the girl was approached by a man she did not know and he grabbed her.
"He lifted her up off the ground and he began to touch her all over her body," Watson said.
The girl's older sister said she thinks her younger sister is brave and did the right thing.
"Everybody was saying that they almost took my sister away. And then I'm like 'Oh my God,' and then I started running," the victim's sister said.
Family and friends were able to scare the man away before he could snatch the girl and possibly take her to a waiting car.
Authorities released a surveillance video of the incident. In it, the suspect's car is parked and then leaves the area. Later, a man is seen walking on the sidewalk passing the girl's home.
"Everyone recognized that something wasn't right and they acted on it," Watson said.
Last November, police released a composite sketch of one of two men who tried to kidnap a 14-year-old girl on the 1400 block of 103rd Avenue. There were two men in the November incident and police believe one of the men involved could be the suspect they were looking for on Tuesday.
Police describe the suspect as a Hispanic male in his mid-to-late 20's. He is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 170 pounds with a light complexion, mustache, goatee, prominent ears and a hairstyle that is short and spiky in the front and long in the back.
The suspect was last seen wearing a gray shirt with black sleeves, with a black stripe on the chest.
Witnesses say they saw the man get into a silver, two-door, 1990's-model Honda civic.
"This is a 9-year-old little girl. We need to protect her. Not only the police but the community," Watson said.
Crime Stoppers of Oakland is offering a $5,000 reward leading to the identification and arrest of the suspect.
