The child who was subject of an announced Amber Alert May 9 is actually safe in the states with his mother, and the case that led to the Amber Alert – which was in fact never issued – is being investigated by the V.I. Police Department.
V.I.P.D. Public Information Officer Melody Rames explained the mishap Monday.
The officer who took the initial complaint filed a report saying the department would issue an Amber Alert. Based on that report, Rames issued the press release announcing it. But, she said, the department itself is not the agency that handles the alert, and the announcement that they would seek an Amber Alert is not the alert itself.
The program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry, to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. It is handled by an agency in the U.S. Department of Justice.
However, once the case was transferred to detectives in the V.I.P.D.’s Domestic Violence unit, detectives discovered that the Amber Alert had not been issued because the case was deemed not to meet the criteria. The child was not in imminent danger, officials determined.
The case arose when the father of 9-year-old Jermaine Henderson reported to police May 3 that Jermane’s maternal grandmother had been taken the boy off island without his knowledge or consent. He said friends had seen the boy at the Cyril E. King Airport boarding a flight to Florida.
He told police he has had custody of his son for more than a year.
But Monday Rames said it has determined Jermane is safe with his mother in the states and the matter was a custodial issue rather than a kidnapping that endangered the child. The department’s Domestic Violence Bureau detectives will continue to follow up the case, she said.
