Infant Safe, Father Charged After NJ Amber Alert: Officials

CUMBERLAND COUNTY, NJ — Police have a South Jersey man in custody after they say he took his infant daughter and prompted an Amber Alert on Thursday morning.

Pennsylvania state police said the seven-month-old girl was safe as of 7:26 a.m. Thursday. She was reported missing from Vineland on Wednesday night, and said to be with her father Ramon B. Rivera Jr.

The Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office said police in Vineland were trying to find Rivera, 22, after receiving a report that he fled with the child Wednesday evening from the area of the Cumberland Mall.

Vineland detectives contacted Rivera and verified the child was in custody, but he did not return to the city with the child voluntarily, according to the prosecutor's office.

Cell phones in New Jersey, and then in Pennsylvania, lit up with the Amber Alert early Thursday morning.

U.S. Marshals from the Philadelphia office found Rivera and the child after stopping a car at the base of the Commodore Barry Bridge in Logan Township, officials said.

The U.S. Marshals Service said task force members were watching a home in Chester, Pa. where they thought the child might be located. The officers saw the child "and some other unidentified adults" get into a car and drive over the bridge.

Rivera was charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, as well as third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, simple assault, and harassment according to the prosecutor's office.

The New Jersey State Police Missing Person's Unit also helped in the investigation, officials said.