By Alex Lloyd Gross
UPDATED 11:00 pm
A seven week old baby boy was kidnapped by a stranger at the King of Prussia Mall today, March 31, 2016 at 5:45PM. The boy, identified by Upper Merion police as Ashir Simmons, was with his mother as she shopped in the mall. As she shopped, a black woman, about five foot, two inches tall carrying an orange purse started to talk to the mother. She befriended her right there. As they strolled the mall together, that woman was waiting for the perfect moment to make her move. That happened near the food court.
As Ashir began to cry, the mother started to calm her child down, when the stranger asked if she could help to calm down the child. As she now had possession of the child, she bolted for the doors near the Bonefish Grill and left the property with the child. Ashir is last seen wearing a bright orange shirt and blue jeans. Police tried to set up a roadblock and started to lock down the mall, searching every vehicle, but the boy and the woman had vanished.
The FBI is now investigating. One security photo was released and more will be coming. An AMBER ALERT was issued statewide . They will review camera footage of the mall and dust for fingerprints of where she touched and collect DNA if possible.
A few minutes before 11:00 PM, police said that the received a tip from an address on Gulph Road in Treddeffrin , Chester County, about a woman who fit the description of the person that was being sought. She was showing off the baby to friends and family. She was arrested and jailed. The baby, Ashir Simmons has been reunited with his family and is safe.