NEWBURGH HEIGHTS, Ohio — With an Ohio Amber Alert in effect statewide amid an ongoing search for missing 5-year-old Darnell Taylor from Columbus, we're taking a closer look at what goes into activating an Amber Alert.
“The public generally doesn’t know all that goes into an Amber Alert," says Newburgh Heights Police Chief John Majoy, who is also the board president of Cleveland Missing. "There’s a lot of moving parts to it. But this is why they’re so rare, this is why they’re unique because it’s a unique situation that’s life or death."
He said once a decision is made to activate an Amber Alert, authorities have a variety of tools to spread the word through emergency cell phone alerts, billboards and more.
"So all these go into the whole entire alert," he continues. "We need the public’s help. That’s why we do this. You heard Columbus PD talking yesterday and they’re making a cry to the public saying, ‘Please help us find this child and bring him home safely.’ A lot of moving parts to an Amber Alert, and so hopefully today will bring about some good leads and bring this child home.”
OHIO AMBER ALERT CRITERIA
The Ohio Amber Alert site lists the following criteria:
- Law enforcement confirms the child is under 18 years of age.
- Law enforcement believes the abduction poses a credible threat of immediate danger or serious bodily harm or death to the child.
- There is sufficient descriptive information about the child, the suspect, and/or the circumstances surrounding the abduction to believe that activation of the alert will help locate the child.
- A law enforcement agency determines the child is not a runaway and has not been abducted as a result of a family abduction, unless the investigation determines the child is in immediate danger of serious bodily harm or death.
ENDANGERED MISSING CHILD ALERT
How is this different from an Endangered Missing Child Alert?
"There are situations where you will be investigating a missing child case, where the circumstances put the child’s life in immediate danger, but for some reason the AMBER Alert criteria were not met for the case," according to the Ohio Amber Alert site. "The Endangered Missing Child Alert was created to alert the public to assist in locating the missing child."
Here's the criteria for an Endangered Missing Child Alert:
- Missing Child – Runaway, Lost Non-Witnessed / Non-Confirmed Abduction, child is missing with circumstances unknown.
- Child’s missing status confirmed by law enforcement and victim is in danger of serious bodily harm or death.
- There is enough descriptive information concerning the circumstances, suspect, vehicle, and/or victim, where the public would be able to assist.
DARNELL TAYLOR'S AMBER ALERT
While the Amber Alert was issued by Columbus police early Wednesday morning, the suspect's vehicle was found near Cleveland in Brooklyn just hours after the statewide alert was activated.
“Most Amber Alerts, there’s usually a destination where they’re going and law enforcement can try to track them down," Chief Majoy says. "One of the challenges with this case is, what is she doing in the greater Cleveland area? What is her tie to the area? It bodes to ask is there accomplices involved or is this just random? What happened? It just makes this very, very unique that she ended up here two hours away from Columbus.”
An arrest warrant has now been issued for the suspect, who has been identified as 48-year-old Pammy Maye. Authorities say she's Darnell's foster mom.