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Woman charged with snatching 12-year-old granddaughter from hospital at gunpoint, police say

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana grandmother has been charged in the armed Valentine’s Day abduction of her 12-year-old granddaughter from a pediatric emergency room in New Orleans.

Evelyn Miller, 66, of Metairie, was in the Washington Parish Jail Monday on a fugitive warrant out of Jefferson Parish, jail records show. She was being held without bond.

Miller is also facing charges of simple kidnapping, five counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, two counts of simple battery and violation of a gun-free zone, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office officials said Saturday. She will be extradited from Washington Parish to face those charges.

According to authorities, Miller went to Ochsner Medical Center around 5 p.m. Friday and brandished a revolver at staff members, including a security guard, while demanding they release her granddaughter, Andreana Miller, who was being treated for an unspecified ailment. Investigators told NOLA.com that as she fled with the girl, Evelyn Miller pushed a nurse to the ground and struck a second security guard with her vehicle, a 2019 Toyota Sienna.

No one was seriously injured, NOLA.com reported. Louisiana State Police officials issued a Level II Child Endangerment Alert seeking Evelyn and Andreana Miller. Evelyn Miller’s Sienna was later recovered, though she and her granddaughter remained missing until Saturday, when they were spotted at a hotel more than 65 miles away in Bogalusa.

Andreana Miller was found unharmed.

A motive for the alleged abduction has not been made public.