Police said Thursday they will not charge a Stone Mountain man who took two toddlers from a woman whose car had broken down on I-20 in DeKalb County.
Charles Watson turned himself in to DeKalb County police around 8 p.m. Wednesday after a statewide manhunt for him and the children that lasted more than 15 hours, police said.
A Levi’s Call, Georgia’s AMBER Alert escalating searches for kidnapped children to a national level, was issued early Wednesday morning. The GBI joined DeKalb police in a large-scale look-out that included, at times, police dogs and helicopters canvassing the area.
In the end, the children were brought unharmed to authorities after women keeping them for Watson saw reports of an apparent kidnapping in the media, police said.
Detectives interviewed Watson and determined he had no criminal intent when he took Jalen Mattison, 3, and Amari Mattison, 1, early Wednesday morning, police spokeswoman Mekka Parish said.
“It had a happy ending,” police Chief William O’Brien told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution earlier.
The incident began some time before 2 a.m. when the children’s mother, Ashely Mattison, pulled over to the I-20 on-ramp to Wesley Chapel Road after her car broke down, police said.
Watson, a stranger to the woman, stopped to help. He drove Mattison and her children to a Shell gas station not far from where her car had stalled, she told police.
When Mattison left on foot to meet police and arrange for a wrecker to move her car, Watson waited at the Shell with the children in his SUV, police said.
Parish said Watson waited 30 minutes from the time Mattison left before he drove away. He took the children to the home of some friends to babysit the youngsters. It is unclear where Watson went afterward or if he returned to the gas station to look for the mother.
Police said Mattison was delayed returning to retrieve her children because she accompanied the tow truck to a place to drop off her disabled car. When she got back to the Shell station and realized Watson and the kids were gone, she called police.
Later Wednesday, the children were turned over to the state Department of Family and Children Services.
Detectives who interviewed Mattison were concerned about some of the information they learned, police said. They did not elaborate.
No charges are being filed against Mattison, Parish said.
DFACS will determine if and when the mother can reclaim her children.
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