BRUNSWICK, Ohio — We now have more information about the Medina County citizen who first called Brunswick Police last Monday in connection to the statewide Amber Alert. That call to 911 ultimately ended the Amber Alert and led to the rescue of a 7-year-old girl.
The Amber Alert was issued in Jefferson County; police said Charles Alexander abducted his daughter from her grandmother’s house. He was not the custodial parent.
Police said the two left in his pick-up truck; he ditched his truck in Northeast Ohio and got into a stolen 26-foot U-Haul. That U-Haul ended up in a Brunswick Plaza.
RELATED: Man sought in Amber Alert dies in police shooting in Medina Township
As a Medina County resident was leaving the Winking Lizard restaurant, he just happened to notice a U-Haul that seemed out of place.
“They went home and then received an updated Amber Alert about a U-Haul truck with Arizona plates,” said Brunswick Police Chief Robert Safran.
That’s when Safran said the caller dialed 911.
“There’s a big U-Haul rental truck matching the description, I looked and I saw it was an Arizona plates,” the caller said.
There was an officer very near the area who tried to stop Alexander; that was the beginning of the slow-speed police pursuit that ended the Amber Alert.
We now have more information about the caller.
“He’s in law enforcement, I can tell you that much. He was off duty,” said Safran.
Amber Alerts rely on the public for help.
“It only works because of the word getting out and then someone taking action on that word,” said Safran.
The Brunswick Police Chief is convinced that the caller saved the life of the 7-year-old girl.
“The end result is the little girl is alive today. I really believe if that call wasn’t made and he hadn’t put the observation together that the U-Haul truck was just parked in the plaza there, I don’t think she’d be alive today,” explained Safran.
Alexander fired shots at police, pointed the gun at his daughter and held her hostage as police and dispatchers tried to negotiate with him. A sharpshooter from the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Special Response Team ended the standoff by shooting and killing the 43-year-old man.
