COLUMBUS, Ohio — After a few terrifying hours searching for a one-year-old child, the suspect involved in the AMBER alert and the child were both found.
You probably received the AMBER alert on your phone or saw it on TV Tuesday night.
“The quicker we can get it out there, the more likely we are to recovering that child safely,” said Ohio State Highway Patrol Lieutenant Craig Cvetan.
The alert came shortly after the Franklin County Sheriff's Office says William Hannah struck his girlfriend in the head with a gun, then the gun fired.
Hannah then grabbed the victim's one-year-old son. He is not the father.
Deputies say Hannah stole the victim’s car and took off.
Hours later, the suspect and the child were found. Fortunately, the child was safe.
There have now had two AMBER alerts just in the past couple of weeks. Typically there are only seven to 10 amber alerts issued a year.
Last year there were seven AMBER Alerts issued in central Ohio, and every one of those children was found safe.
That is the goal of them, and why they aren't issued very often.
“We don't want to overuse the system and have people become desensitized to hearing them,” Cvetan said.
There are strict criteria for issuing AMBER Alerts.
The child must be under 18 years old, there must be a threat of harm or death to the child, and there must be enough information to help lead to the recovery of the child.
“The best tool we have in recovering an abducted child is the public in pushing information out to them. They can be our eyes and ears out there and notify us when they've seen the vehicle or when they've seen the child,” Cvetan said.
Any agency can call the Ohio State Highway Patrol and ask for an AMBER Alert to be issued.
If there is an alert, several agencies work together to make sure that child is found quickly.
You'll see alerts on ODOT billboards if a car is involved, television stations like 10TV will broadcast the information, and there's a social media push.
“A lot of these cases are successful and the child is found safely just because somebody made that call,” Cvetan said.