ATLANTA — The officers who helped rescue two young girls who had been kidnapped from their mother described the moments they found them and the suspect.
Speaking Wednesday, they said they broke into a trailer during their search after hearing a child crying inside.
All the latest developments in the case LIVE on Channel 2 Action News starting at 4:00 p.m.
Det. Sherrod Stancil said they had to use bolt cutters to break the lock and get to the 4-year-old and 11-month-old girls.
“I immediately recognized the two children in there,” he said.
Det. Lukasz Sajdak said their main goal was to find the children safe and get them back to their family, and it was a bonus to find Lakesha Brown, the kidnapping suspect, also inside.
“Once we saw those kids in there and got them out safely, it was a weight off our shoulders,” he said.
Officials in Paulding County also said Wednesday that Brown will face charges there. She is accused of faking her own pregnancy in a separate situation.
Arrest warrants revealed new details on how the woman allegedly kidnapped two sisters before police rescued them from the sweltering trailer.
Brown faces multiple charges in the kidnappings of 4-year-old and 11-month-old girls. Police found them at an apartment complex in southeast Atlanta.
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The girls’ mother, Elicia Redding, told Channel 2 Action News she met Brown through a Facebook group for expectant mothers.
Redding said Brown had offered support during her pregnancy and that she had known her for nearly a year before Brown volunteered to watch the girls.
“I thought it was just going to be a day out. I trusted her, and she broke that trust,” Redding said.
Police say Brown kidnapped the children Saturday evening instead.
“You can’t trust nobody,” Redding said.
[RELATED: Body camera video shows Atlanta officers rescue kidnapped sisters from sweltering trailer]
According to the arrest warrants, Brown told Redding that she was taking the girls to Walmart and “Candy Utopia”. Redding told police that she called Brown throughout the day to check on her daughters. Brown told her that everything was OK.
Redding said she and Brown agreed to meet at grandmother’s house. Brown never showed. The warrant says:
“Redding stated that she called her multiple times, and each time Ms. Brown made an excuse for being late or not arriving. Finally, Ms. Redding demanded that Ms. Brown return her children, at which time Ms. Brown stated, ‘I was in an accident; I don’t have your kids, and they are at DFACS.’”
Police checked with local hospitals and the Georgia Division of Family & Children Services (DFACS), but found no records of the girls. Brown stopped answering Redding’s phone calls.
Brown later “admitted” that she should have returned the girls when Redding asked, but she didn’t have a “logical reason” as to why she didn’t, according to the warrants.
She remains in the Fulton County jail without bond.
Suspect also accused of kidnapping newborn in Alabama
Channel 2 Action News learned Brown was previously indicted in Alabama in a strikingly similar case involving a newborn baby.
Authorities in Jefferson County, Alabama, accused Brown of kidnapping 4-day-old Kamarion Taylor in 2021.
According to investigators, Brown had agreed to help care for the child’s mother, Brionna Washington, and her newborn son. Washington later woke up from a nap to discover Brown and the infant were gone, authorities said. The newborn was eventually recovered safely.
Brown pleaded not guilty in that case and was scheduled to stand trial in May. She never appeared back in court. Alabama prosecutors have filed a motion to revoke her bond and have her extradited to face prosecution.
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