Police: Armed man who took baby from East Hills apartment at gunpoint remains at large

Police are searching for a 29-year-old man who they said took his 6-week-old baby from an apartment in Pittsburgh’s East Hills neighborhood at gunpoint Monday night.

Lester Jackson III is charged with robbery of a motor vehicle, endangering the welfare of children and making terroristic threats in connection with the incident. Jackson also is facing gun charges because police said he was found guilty of a felony robbery charge in 2007, making it illegal for him to possess a firearm.

A criminal complaint filed in connection with Monday’s incident said officers responded to Wilner Drive in East Hills around 9:45 p.m. for a reported domestic incident involving a gun. Responding officers met with a woman identified as Jackson’s wife who said that Jackson took their 6-week-old baby at gunpoint and fled in her SUV, the complaint said.

The woman told police that Jackson became angry after he saw an ex-boyfriend of hers had messaged her on Facebook, the complaint said. The woman told police an argument ensued and a short time later Jackson took the baby from her, pulled out a black handgun and began to move it around before taking the keys to her car and leaving, the complaint said.

Police said a neighbor reported that the woman’s other child, who is not related to Jackson, pounded on their door and said, “Daddy put a gun to the baby’s head,” according to the complaint. The neighbor reported seeing Jackson leave the apartment with the baby in his shirt and get into the SUV, but the neighbor did not see a gun, the complaint said.

Officers said they found the woman’s SUV at the intersection of Upland Street and North Homewood Avenue in the city’s Homewood North section.

The complaint said officers set up a perimeter around a house on Mt. Vernon Street where they suspected Jackson might be and began calling for him to come out of the home. Officers said a woman later identified as Jackson’s grandmother first looked out of a second-floor window and then opened the door and told police she needed to get dressed before coming outside, though she was fully clothed, the complaint said.

After the woman went back inside and officers yelled for anyone inside to come out, police said they heard the woman yelling before she came back outside. She told the officers, “The baby is inside,” and added, “(Jackson) isn’t in there. He dropped the baby and left,” the complaint said. The woman was detained by police.

Officers called SWAT to the scene and they found the baby safe on the second floor of the home, police said. Jackson was not inside. Witnesses told police that he had left before officers arrived, the complaint said.

The baby was safely returned to the mother. Police are continuing to investigate.