LANCASTER, California (CNN) -- Two teenage girls were found alive and the man suspected of kidnapping them Thursday morning was shot and killed by police in Kern County hours after the abduction, officials said.

"The girls are safe and in the care of the Kern County Sheriff's Department," said Los Angeles Assistant Sheriff Larry Waldie. "The suspect is deceased. He has been killed at the scene."

The suspect, Roy Ratliff, had been wanted on rape charges, he said.

The sheriff said a Kern County animal control officer spotted Ratliff's vehicle and called the local sheriff's department, which dispatched officers who attempted to apprehend him.

Ratliff refused to stop and crashed the Bronco after a short pursuit, Waldie said. "He fled, leaving the two kids there. They secured the kids and went after the suspect and the shooting occurred."

The girls' parents would be flown to Kern County, northeast of Los Angeles, in a department plane, Waldie said.

"The first thing I'll say to her is that I love her very much. I'm glad she's safe," said Sammie Brooks, father of 16-year-old Tamara Brooks. "I couldn't be a happier man right now."

The father of Jacqueline Marris, 17, thanked the law enforcement agencies. "Thank God the kids are OK and they're coming home," said Herb Marris.

The girls had been in separate vehicles with male friends at a popular "lovers' lane" in Los Angeles County when they were kidnapped at gunpoint shortly before 2 a.m. Thursday, police said.

Authorities said the Bronco was the only vehicle in the parking lot when the suspect arrived in a stolen Saturn at the Quartz Hill water tower -- popular with teens because of its seclusion and sweeping views of the valley.

The Saturn was reported stolen in a car-jacking in Las Vegas, Nevada, but authorities said they did not have details.

The Bronco belonged to Brooks' friend, Joshua Brown, according to Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputy Brian Lendman.

Brown, who said he turned 18 Thursday, said that moments after he heard a car pull into the parking lot, the suspect was at his window with a semiautomatic handgun.

"He told me to give him all my money," he said. "I thought he was going to kill us."

The suspect left the girl in the truck, he said, warning her to keep her head down, tied Brown to a pole and blindfolded him. The man pointed a gun to the back of Brown's head, the young man told investigators.

"He told me he was going to kill me, but he didn't want to," he said. "He actually just wanted to tie me up. He wanted the truck. ... It sounded like he was trying to decide if he was going to kill me or not."

As the suspect was preparing to leave, Brown said, he heard another car pull into the parking lot, apparently Marris and her companion.

The companion, who identified himself as Frank, said the suspect first tried to tape the two teenagers together in the car.

But when that didn't work, he taped Frank to his car seat and steering wheel and left with both girls in the Bronco.

One of the young men worked himself free and ran down the hill to a pay phone, said Capt. Tom Pigott of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Pigott said that the suspect apparently doused the Saturn in gasoline or some other flammable liquid, apparently intending to set fire to it, "but for some reason elected not to do that."

We don't have to worry about him being rehabilitated," Sparks said of Ratliff. "We don't have to worry about the Supreme Court. He is deceased."