Jada Saunders
Last Name Saunders
First Name Jada
Middle Name
Sex Female
Race Black
Date Of Birth 4 Months
Place Of Birth
Height Unknown
Weight Unknown
Hair
Eyes
Complexion
Scars/Marks/Tattoos smt
Last Seen April 11, 2005
NCIC
AMBER ABDUCTED CHILD ALERT:
IRVINGTON CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT:
On this date, the suspect Almutah Saunders (alias: Almutha, Al, Mutah, Tamel) abducted his daughter, Jada Saunders, B/F, 4 months old) and mother Erika Turner.
Almutah is travelling with the mother and child in the a 2001 Grey/Silver Honda Accord with NJ Registration RJD-75V.
Suspect is armed and dangerous, please be advised he may possibly be carrying a weapon. Suspect may possibly be heading towards the George Washington Bridge, via the city of Newark.
PLEASE CONTACT 9-1-1 if you have further information.
If they're going to PA, they're going the wrong way.
When I think "urban blight" I think of Irvington. Sad, horrid place. Prayers for the woman and child.
If he's shooting with a woman, where do the bullets come out?
Unbelievable update.
Victim in Wild New Jersey Hostage Chase to Sue Police
(Nutley, New Jersey -WABC, April 14, 2005) -- There's another twist in that wild hostage situation in New Jersey that unfolded live on Eyewitness News on Monday - the woman who was held captive with her infant is now suing the Irvington Police Department.
New Jersey reporter Jen Maxfield joins us live from the attorney's office in Nutley.
Today Erica Turner, her parents and her cousin notified Irvington that they plan to file a $4.3 million lawsuit, saying that the Irvington Police failed to protect her from her ex-boyfriend, even after she filed a police report saying that he threatened to kill her.
Making her first public appearance since being abducted at gunpoint Monday morning, Erica Turner revealed what her ex-boyfriend threatened as they sat in the car, surrounded by police.
Erica Turner, Abduction Victim: "He said he would kill me and himself."
Erica and her baby daughter Jada were released unharmed nine hours after police say Almutah Saunders shot Erica's father in the leg and drove off with her and the baby.
Patrick Toscano, Victim's Attorney: "This is an extremely dangerous individual who threatened to do what he did, and he followed through on it."
Erica Turner and her family plan to sue Irvington authorities for $4.3 million for failing to protect them from Saunders. On April 4th, one week before the abduction, Turner got a restraining order against Saunders and later that day filed a police report describing his death threats against her.
Later that night Turner says she called 911 when Saunders began pounding on her apartment door. She says the Irvington dispatcher told her they didn't have a squad car available to respond.
Erica Turner, Abduction Victim: "I know what he's capable of doing, so him pounding on my door - I don't know what to expect from him, and he's not supposed to be there."
Patrick Toscano, Victim's Attorney: "Somebody was dispatched - he was there an hour, he wasn't leaving. But they got there - somebody got there, they would have arrested him."
Instead Turner said, police didn't show up for almost three hours and by then Saunders was gone. Turner's attorney says Irvington police caught up with Saunders again later that week but let him go. Five days later the Amber Alert was issued and after a 12-hour stand-off Saunders was finally arrested.
A spokesman for Irvington Township told us that they are conducting their own internal investigation into the allegations and they could not release any more details on that.
On Monday they Irvington police told us that they had actually gone twice to Almutah Saunders address in East Orange to try to arrest him but he was not there.
911 Operators Criticized In NJ Kidnap Case
Apr 20, 2005 7:13 am US/Eastern
(1010 WINS) IRVINGTON, N.J. Two nine-one-one operators in Irvington face disciplinary action.
They were reassigned because a woman whose ex-boyfriend is accused of holding her and their four-month-old daughter hostage called police eleven times before help arrived.
Erica Turner called a week before the standoff when Almutah Saunders demanded to be let inside her apartment.
Tapes of the emergency calls show it took two hours before officers arrived. By then, Saunders was gone.
He resurfaced a week later. Authorities say Saunders took Turner and their daughter on a high-speed car chase to Lopatcong, where he held police at bay for eight hours last Monday. Turner and the child were released unharmed and Saunders surrendered.
Turner intends to sue the police department.