VA Amber Alert called-off, stepfather charged in boy's death

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On Tuesday night, Va. State Police called-off the Amber Alert issued for 2-year-old Aveion Malik Lewis, the next day, police in Roanoke charged the boy’s stepfather, Brandon Lockett, with child neglect, improper disposal of a human body and obstruction of justice.

According to police, Lockett has admitted that the child was dead before he contacted authorities. As yet, there is no information into how the boy died.

The Amber Alert began on Friday, after Lockett reported Aveion’s abduction late Thursday afternoon.

Lockett initially claimed that three assailants forced their way into the family’s Jamestown Place apartment, struck him unconscious, and when he awoke, his stepson was gone and his 4-year-old daughter was bound and gagged.

He said that the kidnappers left a $10,000 ransom note.

Though police were suspicious of Lockett’s story, they continued searching for the toddler, conducting traffic stops, going door-to-door in his neighborhood, and passing out fliers.

Roanoke Police Chief Joe Gaskins told reporters: "We had some reservations about the stories that were being told, but considering the child, we couldn't afford to assume that an abduction had not occurred, so we certainly had to work it from the angle that there had been an abduction."

 

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