DETROIT – Police chief James White is commending the quick thinking of two of his Detroit police officers who helped get four abducted children to safety.
Officers said the pulled over a woman for running a red light and discovered she had four kidnapped children in the car. Stephanie Marie Binder, 37, of Detroit, was pulled over around 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday (Nov. 30).
When officers approached the vehicle, they saw four children in the backseat crying. They asked Binder if they were her children and she told them they were. The officers asked the children if they knew Binder and they shook their heads no. That’s when Binder was arrested.
Original: Detroit woman kidnaps 4 young children who were walking to school, police say
The mother of the children, Shayla Burleigh, said she is relieved her children are safe.
“When I first got the call I didn’t know to what extent, exactly what was going on,” Burleigh said.
Local 4 obtained video footage of the white van Binder is accused of stealing. Binder is accused of kidnapping the children while they were walking to school.
White said two officers pulled Binder over in near the intersection of Grand River Avenue and Evergreen Road.
“They began speaking with the driver, noticeably the body language of the driver was just a off a bit. They could tell she was uncomfortable. They couldn’t tell why. But they knew something was off,” White said.
Binder has been charged with four counts of kidnapping -- child enticement, four counts of unlawful imprisonment, one count of unlawfully driving away of an automobile and one count of receiving and concealing a stolen motor vehicle.