On Monday, May 25, 2020, at 1609 hours, a hysterical mother called into the ChatComm/IXP 9-1-1 Center, stating that her seven-year-old son had been kidnapped from the Berkshire Apartments in the city of Brookhaven. C-shift Supervisor, Nethaneel Lankford, was the call-taker. The mother abruptly disconnected the line after repeating, “My baby is gone; he wouldn’t do this. I think I know who did this.”
Immediately following that call, Supervisor Lankford and the C-shift team leaped into action while the Brookhaven Police Department went to Berkshire Apartments to attempt to locate the mother. Supervisor Lankford and team started contacting surrounding jurisdictions based on information they received from the responding units. Twenty-seven minutes into the incident, the mother was located, and the suspect’s information, including two possible phone numbers, was obtained.
From there, Supervisor Lankford contacted the cell phone provider and requested subscriber information, as well as the historical information on the still active cell phone. In asking for this historical data, a generic location near a group of hotels off of highway I-20 (near Six Flags) showed that the suspect had frequented that area in the days leading up to the kidnapping, as well as the day of. This historical information also revealed that the suspect was in the area at the time of the kidnapping.
Due to the conjoined efforts of Supervisor Lankford and the C and D shift employees, a successful recovery of the child, as well as the apprehension of the suspect, was completed, all within five hours of the initial incident report.
This incident was handled within the ChatComm/IXP standard of excellence, which we highly foster within our company.