17-year-old arrested after 2-month-old baby kidnapped, left behind dumpster

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Deputies say a 17-year-old by was arrested after he stole a car with a 2-month-old baby inside and later dumped the baby behind a dumpster.

Clayton County deputies said they responded to reports of a stolen vehicle at 834 Highway 138 SE in Jonesboro around 11:45 a.m.

According to the child’s mother, she parked her car at the Champion Wings and Fish restaurant and left the keys in the vehicle and the vehicle running with her baby inside while she went inside to pick up her food.

As she was leaving the business, she saw her Silver Acura being driven away by a man she didn’t know.

Deputies said Johnson stole a Silver Acura with the infant in the back seat.

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Deputies issued a BOLO for the car.

Deputies then saw the vehicle urn in front of them from Southlake Parkway and Mt. Zion Road. They tried to stop the car but the driver, identified as Jonathan Johnson sped away. At one point, the vehicle drove on the sidewalk and crossed a concrete median. The vehicle then crashed near a cemetery on Mt. Zion Road.

Johnson ran from the car. Deputies caught him in the nearby woods.

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The baby was not in the car.

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Neighbors at the Tara Woods apartment complex off Tara Boulevard told Channel 2′s Bryan Mims that they saw someone pull up, leave the baby behind the dumpster and then drive away.

Deputies then found the car at a cemetery at Mount Zion Baptist Church nearly three miles away from the complex.

The child’s identity was not released. The baby was not harmed and was reunited with her mother.

Johnson has been charged with motor vehicle theft, kidnapping, reckless conduct, hit and run, cruelty to children, fleeing and eluding, disobeying a traffic control device and reckless driving.

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