Dash cam shows police chasing U-Haul involved in Amber Alert
By: -----
An Amber Alert that was issued on Monday evening for a 7-year-old girl started in Empire and ended more than 100 miles away in Brunswick.
The girl -- Oaklyn Alexander, is safe – and her father, who police say abducted her, is dead.
“(The suspect, 43-year-old Charles Alexander) went to school to pick up his daughter who he had no custody of,” Medina County Sheriff Terry Grice said. “The grandma then went to the school and took the daughter, 7-year-old, to her house. At that point, the suspect went to that location and abducted the individual."
Starting in Jefferson County, officers were made aware of the abduction that started in a Ford F-150 driven by Alexander.
"We began the process of trying to locate Mr. Alexander through ways we use of pinging the phone," Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla Jr. said.
Jefferson County initiated the Amber Alert. The suspect and victim then switched vehicles to a U-Haul truck and made it to Medina County.
“During the course of the pursuit, Mr. Alexander placed a call to our dispatch center threatening that he would shoot his daughter and himself,” Grice said. “He wanted officers to back off and stop pursuing him."
"Officers attempted to stop the vehicle,” Captain Eric Bors with the Medina County Sheriff's Office said. “The vehicle led officers through multiple jurisdictions. A pursuit on south of I-71, where then he turned off onto State Route 18 and pulled into a business."
Alexander was in communication over the phone with officers, and shots were fired at the officers when they approached the vehicle.
"Not the custodial parent,” Bors said. “Had no right to have her. He was threatening harm to both himself and the child.
“Ultimately, a trooper from the OSHP fired one shot and Mr. Alexander was pronounced dead at the scene."
Throughout the process, thousands of community members on Facebook shared the Amber Alert to try to bring Oaklyn home safely.
The efforts included the Jefferson and Medina County Sheriff’s offices, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Medina Township Police, Brunswick, and Montville, U.S. Marshals, Medina Fire Department, and Cleveland Clinic Life Support Team.
"This is a community really close to where I grew up, and we’ve got phenomenal citizens in Jefferson County and its citizens overwhelmingly come to the aid of law enforcement to get us the info we need," Abdalla said.
The young girl is safe with family members.