Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
A 19-year-old Omaha man had caused problems for the mother of his son long before the morning of Christmas Eve.
Jarez D. Wilson's “anger problems” already had soured his relationship with the child's mother, 20-year-old Naquieta N. Harper, before about 6 a.m. Thursday, said Harper's grandmother, Janice Harper.
That's when authorities say Wilson kicked in the door of the Harper family home at 5014 N. 22nd St. about 6 a.m. Thursday and took the 15-month-old boy, Jarez Wilson Jr.
Police issued an Amber Alert just before 10 a.m. About noon, someone else dropped off the child with Harper, though it was unclear who.
Wilson turned himself in about 8:30 p.m. He was booked on an arrest warrant charging him with burglary and felony child neglect.
Police said Naquieta Harper had been sleeping with the child when Wilson arrived.
Janice Harper, in the home at the time, said all she could remember was her granddaughter saying, “Grandma, he's in.”
Police say that after Wilson took the child, he fled in a rented silver 2009 Saturn four-door with Missouri plates, police said. But with the help of On-Star — a subscription-based in-car security and communications system — officers located the Saturn near Irvington Road and Ida Street. It appeared to be abandoned and unoccupied, police said.
Precious Franklin, who lives next door to the Harpers, said she awoke to screaming after Wilson arrived at the Harper home. She said she's witnessed Wilson causing her neighbor “drama” before.
“He acts psycho,” the 27-year-old said. “It seems like he's always causing problems for her.”
Janice Harper said her great-grandson appeared to be doing OK. The child was checked by Omaha Fire and Rescue and taken to a local hospital.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the child had been injured, but in issuing the Amber Alert, police said the boy may have been hurt during the struggle to take him.
Harper said her granddaughter, when the baby was returned, was extremely relieved. Naquieta Harper, reached outside the home, declined to comment as she walked her son to a waiting ambulance.
Contact the writer:
444-1279, jason.kuiper@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
