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Two people are in custody after police say a two-year-old boy was abducted from a Winnipeg home earlier Friday in a violent incident that began as a dispute with the child’s mother.
The boy was found after a tip reporting a woman and child matching descriptions shared in an Amber Alert earlier that afternoon led officers to the area of McPhillips Street and Logan Avenue, where they found the child and one of two adult suspects, Winnipeg Police Service spokesperson Const. Stephen Spencer said at a news conference Friday afternoon.
The other adult was later taken into custody, Spencer said, while the boy was taken to hospital and assessed. He had no injuries.
Investigators are consulting with prosecutors to determine charges.
The incident began after a dispute with the child’s biological mother, Spencer said. It involved a weapon and “some violence” between one of the suspects and the mother — which “really heightened how we dealt with this” and was one of the reasons an alert was issued, he said.
He said while the incident “was not random,” the child was not related to the two people arrested, and investigators are working with the mother to determine why it happened. The major crimes unit is investigating.
Witnesses saw boy inside Pizza Pizza
Debbie Dutka and Heather Foster said they were in the area of McPhillips and Logan Friday afternoon when they suddenly heard sirens and saw police vehicles coming from all directions.
It was about five to 10 minutes after she’d seen the Amber Alert on her phone, which included photos of two women police said were suspects, Foster said.
“I said to Debbie … well, now that their pictures are out, they’re going to have a hard time hiding now,” Foster told CBC News in an interview.
A boy who police say was taken from a home where a violent dispute occurred was found within a matter of hours, after an Amber Alert generated a flood of tips.
The women, who are both grandmothers, said they were relieved to know the boy was safe, after they saw him being tended to by first responders inside a Pizza Pizza restaurant near the intersection where police said he was found. They also saw a woman being arrested.
Const. Spencer said the fact the child was found quickly shows how effective the alert was.
“Anybody that’s out and about, whether they’re on lunch, going to work, bus driver, taxis — they all get this message, and everybody’s on the lookout, everybody’s heightened,” he said.
“So, a lot of those calls that come in, they may not be the person that we’re looking for. But because of all those calls that do come in, that eventually led us to locate this child and the suspect.”
Foster and Dutka said they were impressed by how quickly the boy was found after the alert was sent.
“Please,” Foster said, “when one comes in, do look at your phone.”
Police said in a news release earlier Friday afternoon that officers had gone to a home on Chesterfield Avenue shortly after 10 a.m. that day, when they learned the child had been taken by a 30-year-old woman.
While officers knew the boy was wrapped in a blue blanket, they didn’t know where he was headed or what vehicle he might have been taken in, police said. Police said at the time they were looking for two women, ages 30 and 25.
This story was updated to remove the identity of the child after he was found.
Winnipeg police hold a news conference after issuing an Amber Albert for a two-year-old they say was last seen being taken from a home wrapped in a blanket.
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