Dramatic footage reveals moment sisters, aged four and 11 months, rescued from trailer after Atlanta kidnapping

Dramatic footage reveals moment sisters, aged four and 11 months, rescued from trailer after Atlanta kidnapping The mother of the girls said she knew the alleged kidnapper for nearly a year after meeting her in a Facebook group for expectant moms - Bookmark Bodycam footage has revealed the moment two sisters, aged four and 11 months, were rescued from inside a sweltering-hot tow trailer Monday afternoon after allegedly being kidnapped by their babysitter. The footage, released Tuesday by the Atlanta Police Department, shows an officer using a concrete block and pliers to force their way into a trailer where the two children were hidden under a blanket, and yelling “Put your hands up!” at a woman also inside. “Don’t move or I will shoot you,” an officer tells the woman, identified as Lakesha Brown, 42. Officers then lifted the two crying sisters, who had been missing for nearly two days, from the trailer that was parked at an apartment complex in southwest Atlanta. “I got the baby,” one officer said as he lifted the smaller child, dressed in only a diaper. He was then heard reassuring the 4-year-old: “You’re alright.” The trailer, which appeared to be lined with chipboard and cluttered with clothes and a baby carrier, was “unclean and unsuitable” for children and had no air conditioning despite temperatures reaching 97 degrees, investigators said. The rescue ended a desperate search that began Saturday evening after the girls’ mother, Elicia Redding, said she left her daughters, Zola Cooper, 4, and 11-month-old Norah Cooper, for the day in the care of Brown. She had first met the woman a year earlier through a Facebook group for expectant mothers. "I first met her when she made a post about doing hair for expecting moms. She reached out," Redding told CBS News. "The first time she reached out, I brushed it to the side, and the second time I just let her do my hair, and after that we started talking and being friends." Brown allegedly offered to take the girls to Walmart and Candy Utopia, according to an arrest warrant reviewed by WRDW. Redding said she repeatedly contacted Brown throughout the day and was told that everything was fine. The two women agreed to meet at the children’s grandmother’s home, but Brown never arrived. “I thought it was just going to be a day out. I trusted her, and she broke that trust,” Redding told WSB-TV. “You can’t trust nobody.” When Redding could no longer reach Brown, she contacted the police. Investigators initially responded to what they believed was a custody dispute but determined that a kidnapping had occurred and launched a search for the woman and the children. Police eventually tracked Brown to a property on Sylvan Road using her cellphone location, according to the warrant. The location was about five miles from where police said the girls were last seen at a residential property. Officers who surrounded the trailer could hear the children crying inside before they burst in. The sisters were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta for evaluation before being reunited with their family. The girls were in good health, police said. Brown later “admitted” she should have returned the girls when Redding asked, but according to the warrants, she could not give a “logical reason” for why she didn’t, WSB-TV reports. Brown is being held at the Fulton County Jail without bond on two counts of kidnapping and two counts of child cruelty. Police also learned during the investigation that Brown was from Alabama and allegedly involved in a similar case with a newborn baby about five years ago in Fairfield. In 2021, authorities in Jefferson County accused Brown of taking four-day-old Kamarion Taylor after agreeing to help care for the baby and his mother, Brionna Washington. Washington reportedly woke from a nap to find Brown and the infant gone. The baby was later found safe. Brown pleaded not guilty and was scheduled to go to trial in May, but failed to appear in court, prosecutors said. After her arrest in Atlanta, Alabama prosecutors moved to revoke Brown’s $100,000 bond and have her extradited to Alabama to face the kidnapping case. [Image text:] 2026-08-17 12:28:51 -0400 AX0NB0DY4D01A1629R