19 May 2023 , 13:33
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Police have released dramatic bodycam footage which shows the moment they found a kidnapped baby after it had been inside a car which was stolen out of a driveway.
Officers released the bodycam footage on Thursday, May 18, after a frantic search for the six-month-old infant.
At around 7pm on Monday, May 15, police were called with reports of a kidnapping.
The caller explained that a man they didn't know had jumped into her car while her six-month-old son was still inside and drove off.
The baby's uncle, who didn't wish to be identified, said his sister-in-law had stopped by to drop something off, leaving the baby in the car at his home for a few minutes.
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During those few minutes, police say the suspect, 25-year-old Elliott Reyes, got behind the wheel and took off in the car.
Body camera footage shows an officer rescuing a kidnapped baby who had been abandoned by the suspect (Fox 4)Multiple police units were called to search for the car, taken from the N. Pecan Street area of Fort Worth, Texas, and baby boy.
Around an hour of searching later, officers found Reyes with the stolen car on Deen Street, and he was taken into custody.
But, the baby was nowhere to be found.
"We were freaking out at that moment," Fort Worth Police Sergeant Ronnie Chau told FOX4. "We had no baby.
"We put [Reyes] in a vehicle and had him direct us to where the baby was."
Elliott Reyes, 25, has been charged in relation to the incident (Fox 4)Thankfully, just five minutes later, officers found the child in his car seat.
They came across him near a ravine on a dead end road in a residential area, with bodycam footage showing piles of rubbish and discarded furniture surrounding him.
Footage shows Sgt Chau picking up the baby and comforting him.
He said the car seat was on its side, with the infant hanging by its straps when they got there.
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Sgt Chau recalled the moment he found the baby with a combination of training and fatherly instincts kicking in (Fox 4)Sgt Chau recalled they were "just worried about where the baby can be. Where is the vehicle? And finding every method that we can and resources to get on top of this and get the baby back."
He added: "The baby was hanging on by the straps of the car seat. It was barely hanging on. His foot was in the dirt area."
A father himself, Sgt Chau said it was parental instinct combined with decades of training which kicked in for him to console the months old baby.
Paramedics checked over the boy, who was unharmed, and returned him to his mum.
The car seat was found on its side near a ravine (Fox 4)Recalling the reunion, Sgt Chau said: "She was very happy. She was just crying the whole time."
Reyes has been charged with kidnapping, abandoning/endangering a child and auto theft.
He's being held in the Tarrant County Corrections Center with bonds of $668,000 (£536,700).
Records show he is also facing three additional charges, including attempted capital murder of a person under 10 years old.