A two-story house with red shutters in the 2200 block of Waite Street in Gary was quiet on Wednesday afternoon, but it was a hive of police activity late Monday night when police responded to the report of 15-month-old Timothy Jackson Jr. being kidnapped at gunpoint by two men, according to neighbors.
Jackson was recovered safely Tuesday night at an abandoned house near Edison School along with his birth parents — 17-year-old Timothy Jackson Sr. and 15-year-old Rosalinda Tecaxco. Gary Police Lt. Dawn Westerfield said the two are still in police custody, but when asked whether any suspects in the kidnapping were in custody, she said the investigation is still ongoing.
Charles Johnson said he didn’t hear or see anything suspicious until a line of seven police cars pulled up in front of his neighbor’s house shortly after 11:20 p.m. Monday.
“And I’m a light sleeper,” he said.
Johnson said it’s usually a pretty quiet block in the Tolleston neighborhood.
Johnson said the police were on the scene for a couple of hours and a K9 officer searched the scene as well. Tecaxco, who is a ward of the state, had been staying in the same foster home as her baby, but she had run away last Friday, according to police. Jackson Sr. was also a runaway. A ward of the state is an adult or child who is under the supervision of the state.
Johnson said that he wasn’t aware that his neighbor was looking after foster children, and he didn’t know Tecaxco and Jackson were mother and son.
“I thought she was just watching them while their parents were at work,” he said.
It is unclear whether the toddler will be placed back in the same foster home, as the Indiana Department of Child Services declined comment on the situation.
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Gary Police detectives and the FBI GRIT task force were able to determine the toddler’s location by working off information gathered in the investigation. Since the toddler was kidnapped in such a violent manner, police decided that the Gary Police Department SWAT team would enter to the residence. Jackson Jr. was found in the bedroom of the uninhabited home along with his biological parents. They all were safely recovered.