Who is Mi Angel Gaines? Amber Alert issued for 9-month-old NYC baby after dad snatches her
HARLEM, NEW YORK: NYPD has issued Amber Alert for nine-month-old Mi Angel Gaines, who was allegedly taken by her dad Antonio Armstrong, 22. Antonio was last seen with Gaines on Frederick Douglass Boulevard near 131st Street in Harlem, Manhattan, around 2.30am on June 7. According to NYPD, Mi Angel was seen in a stroller at the time. It is reported that Antonio, who is the baby's non-custodial father, assaulted her mother and then snatched the toddler.
NYPD suspects that Mi Angel was "taken under circumstances that lead police to believe that they are in imminent danger of serious harm and/or death." In a similar incident in June 2020, a statewide Amber Alert was issued by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for a 9-month-old who was 'forcibly taken' by Tony Lynn Lanier Sr, 44. Around the same time, NYPD had issued a statewide Amber Alert for a teenage boy who was abducted near 46th Avenue, in Queens at 4.36am, reportedly by his older brother. A similar incident was reported last year in April when an Amber Alert was issued for a two-year-old girl from Griffin, Georgia, who was identified as Amina Cole. The suspect in the case was listed as 21-year-old Johnetta Leigh Taylor.
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According to police reports, Mi Angel Gaines was last seen wearing a red, white and blue onesie. She has long black hair, brown eyes and is about 15 inches tall and weighs 19 pounds. Antonio, on the other hand, is 5-foot-10 and about 200 pounds and is described as a Black male with a tattoo of a microphone on his neck.
NYPD has released images of both Antonio and Mi Angel and has appealed for the public's help. Anyone with any information is asked to call 911 or the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).