Missing 2-Year-Old Staten Island Girl Found Safe; Father Charged
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A missing 2-year-old girl from Staten Island was found safe after an AMBER Alert was issued Tuesday and her father was arrested and charged, police said.
As CBS2's Tracee Carrasco reported, an alert father and son were credited with finding the suspect and his daughter after seeing their license plate number in the alert.
The AMBER Alert was issued for Kim Woo after police said her father, 45-year-old Johnny Woo, took the little girl from a home on Ismay Street near Forest Hill Road on Staten Island around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The alert stated Johnny Woo "forcefully took" the toddler "under circumstances that lead the police to believe that the child is in imminent danger."
Johnny Woo is in the process of divorcing Kim's mother, who is an NYPD sergeant, police said.
As CBS2's Scott Rapoport reported, Woo allegedly attacked his wife before abducting the girl.
Outstanding work by @NYPDHighway cop, spotted vehicle on N/B Major Deegan Expwy in Bx @NYPD50Pct. Suspect arrested, child is safe/uninjured. https://t.co/xvbAvSJUdH
— Commissioner Sewell (@NYPDPC) February 7, 2017
Police sources said Woo struck his wife in the stomach, grabbed the keys to his car, and took off with little Kim.
The AMBER Alert soon followed, and both faces were plastered along billboards and signs throughout New York City, and in New York State along with Woo's license plate number.
Police conducted an extensive search for the pair in Staten Island, and in the Bronx.
Things did not look good, with a police source telling CBS2's Rapoport, "We don't know where they are."
Then, Rui Fernandes and his son were driving along the Major Deegan when his son's phone went off with the AMBER Alert. The two looked over at the care next to them and realized it was the same car from the alert.
"I was no hero," Fernandes said. "Like I said, God, He put me there for a purpose."
The AMBER Alert had said Johnny Woo was driving a black 2014 Kia Sorrento – and Woo saw just such a vehicle on the expressway.
"All of a sudden, I see a car pass by -- and something told me, just go check the plate, because it was a black car -- Kia Sorrento," Fernandes said. "And I went after the car and I look at the plate. And the plate was the same as in the AMBER Alert."
Instinct took over and Fernandez said he followed Woo for about three miles from Yonkers to the Bronx while his son called 911.
A school safety agent was first to respond. Fernandez flagged the officer down, and together they stopped Woo near 233rd Street at exit 11 on the northbound Major Deegan.
"I got next to him, I say, 'The car, the AMBER Alert is right on the right side – let's block him in,'" Fernandes said. "That's what we did. We blocked him in. He could not get anywhere."
The child was found along with her father after police stopped the vehicle they were in near 233rd Street at exit 11 on the northbound expressway, 1010 WINS' Al Jones reported.
Fernandes was thankful that he caught up to Woo before anything bad happened to the little girl.
"We got the baby. Everything is safe," he said. "That's the main thing."
The little girl was doing OK late Tuesday -- she was taken to a hospital in the Bronx to be checked out.
Woo was charged with third-degree assault and second-degree harassment in the case.