A terrifying story of a kidnapping that crossed state lines thankfully has a happy ending due to the work of two brave and quick-thinking Good Samaritans.
A 3-year-old girl was kidnapped in Pennsylvania and was taken all the way to New York City before she was able to be rescued.
The 3-year-old girl was Ava Byrne. When Ava and the kidnapper were driving through New York City an amber alert went out with the description of the vehicle and the license plate number. One eagle-eyed citizen saw the amber alert that had popped up just five minutes earlier and noticed the license plate numbers were identical. That citizen immediately went to a traffic officer, Md Ali so they could rescue the girl.
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Ali identified the car as matching the description and license plate, so he went to pull over the car.
I checked the number. I see the same number. I said ‘Sir, don’t move your car please. Just pull over the car. I want to talk to you.’
When Ali walked up to the vehicle he immediately saw Ava in the back of the car and quickly called for police back up. When they tried to arrest the kidnapper, he made a run for over, however another police officer managed to snag him before he escaped on foot.
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The kidnapper was a 24-year-old man. In fact it was Ava Byrne’s father, Robert Byrne! Robert is known to suffer from a mental illness that causes him to hear voices in his head. The voices often tell him what to do and Robert can act irrationally.
He just hears voices. He listens to what the voices tell him to do.
The father was taken to the precinct where he was held until Pennsylvania police pick him up and bring him back to their precinct. The daughter was quickly taken to a local hospital where doctors looked over here and determined she was unharmed during the incident.
While Ava waited for her mother to show up, the police officers were sure to play and entertain with Ava. Ava’s mother was relieved to hear that her daughter was unharmed and returned safely.
Her mother was naturally happy, but just wanted to take her daughter home so this nightmare could be forgotten about.
I am feeling happy and I just want to go home and spend time with my daughter.
What an incredibly lucky situation that Ava was able to be saved by an eagle eyed citizen and the excellent police work of the NYPD.