A 7-year-old girl begged her father not to kill her in heart-wrenching 911 audio released from a standoff involving multiple law enforcement agencies on Monday.
“Am I going to heaven today?” the young girl can be heard asking. “I don’t want to go to heaven today,” she screams at her father, her voice full of terror as he points a gun at her.
“No matter what, I’m going to heaven today?” she asks. “Yeah, honey,” Charles Alexander tells his daughter. “I don’t want to,” she screams. “I’m sorry,” her father simply responds.
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He then asks his daughter to come over to him, at which point she repeats, “I don’t want to die.” In an earlier portion of the call, the scared girl could be heard saying, “Don’t aim it at me. You’re scaring me.”
On Monday afternoon in Jefferson County, Ohio, Medina County Sheriff Terry Grice and several other officials from Jefferson County and Medina County responded to a call that a 7-year-old girl had been kidnapped by her father, who did not have custody of her and had been deemed a danger to her.
The kidnapping led to a multi-county search effort after an AMBER Alert was issued, with officers in Medina Township spotting a stolen U-Haul containing Alexander and his daughter, who was sat in the passenger seat.
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A chase ensued, which concluded in a parking lot. That’s when intense police negotiations began, with both 911 dispatchers and police attempting to deescalate the horrifying situation.
911 dispatcher Diane Boyes told FOX 8 about the terrifying call that day, describing how she was able to keep Alexander talking and engaged so that specialized operations officers could reach the scene.
Negotiations eventually drew to a close, and a patrolman was able to neutralize Alexander without harming the girl. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and the 7-year-old was rescued from the U-Haul.
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Boyes said her focus was on “just kind of get[ting] his mind off the current situation” and that her goal was to “keep the conversation going.” She wanted the girl to feel as safe as possible given the circumstances and was also trying to talk Alexander down.
The incident reportedly happened on the girl’s birthday, too. Alexander had a history of struggles with mental health, it was reported, and had several calls against him because of that, as the safety of the girl became a priority.
“It’s not just one call it’s all the calls over multiple years that add up,” Grice said of the situation. He said the girl, her family and everyone else involved would receive mental health resources to help them cope with what happened.
