The Jefferson Police Chief is sharing some insight about the incident on January 30th where a suspect is accused of kidnapping the suspect’s biological son.

Police Chief Mark Clouse says the morning that Brandon Duong took his son from the playground at the Greene County Elementary School without permission, the school district took immediate action, which he applauds their excellent execution of protocols.

“They did an outstanding job of instantly locking down perimeters, locking school buildings. And not just at the elementary where it occurred, but obviously they (the school district) had knowledge of another child (related to Brandon Duong) in another school building. (It) worked out great. No one requested them (the school district) to do that, that was done through the school with their policies and procedures, and my hats off to them because they did an outstanding job.”     

Clouse notes that once the school’s information was turned over to the police department, they had to compile a report to submit to the state so that an Amber Alert could be issued. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio some of the criteria for an Amber Alert is that the subject must be in a vehicle, there has to be a relative feeling that the child is in danger, along with the suspect’s past and a vehicle description, among other items. 

Clouse points out that once the packet is submitted to the state, there was a roundtable phone discussion with other state law enforcement entities, followed by another phone call with a final decision whether or not to issue the Amber Alert. He says that process took about one hour and 15 minutes from the time the packet was submitted to the final phone call. He notes that Amber Alerts are not taken lightly, and the last one he was involved with was 12 years ago.

“That’s why they’re, I don’t want to say they’re scarce because they happen way too often, but if you knew how many people were entered into the Iowa system as ‘missing’ in a year’s time versus Amber Alerts, that’s a huge difference. And that’s because of that criteria.”

According to reports, Duong was eventually found in Plymouth County where his vehicle was on the side of a road and he had exited the vehicle while holding his son and using him as a shield and holding a firearm in the other hand. Duong was arrested and faces a Class B Felony charge for second degree kidnapping-armed with a dangerous weapon. According to court documents, the case has been put on hold pending a mental evaluation to determine his competency to stand trial.