Nearly 40 children who had been missing were found in Georgia as part of a two-week mission dubbed “Operation Not Forgotten,” the U.S. Marshals Service announced Thursday. Many of these children were at risk for chid, the law enforcement agency said.
Twenty-six children were rescued and 13 others were safety located in the mission, which also involved the National Center for Missing and Children (NCMEC), the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Office of the Georgia Attorney General and other state and local agencies.
The children ranged in age from 3 to 17. The operation also led to the custody of nine people for charges, registered or other related cases. “When we track down fugitives, it’s a good feeling to know that we’re putting the bad guy behind bars.
But that sense of accomplishment is nothing compared to finding a missing child,” Darby Kirby, chief of the Marshals Service Missing Child Unit, said in a statement.
“It’s hard to put into words what we feel when we rescue a missing child, but I can tell you that this operation has impacted every single one of us out here. We are working to pr0tect them and get them the help they need.” Children were found in 20 counties around metro Atlanta area, ABC affiliate WSB reported, including Gwinnett, Fulton, Clayton and Forsyth counties.
Tens of thousands set to march in ‘Get Your Knee Off Our Necks’ pr0test.
In a press conference Thursday, Donald Washington, director of the United States Marshals Service, said a similar operation in Cleveland has recovered 15 children so far and led to the custody of two people. Tens of thousands set to march in ‘Get Your Knee Off Our Necks’ pr0test. In a press conference Thursday, Donald Washington, director of the United States Marshals Service, said a similar operation in Cleveland has recovered 15 children so far and led to the custody of two people.
Another operation to find missing children called “Operation Summer Rescue” just began in New Orleans.
“There is no more meaningful work that law enforcement does than rescuing children,” Washington said Thursday. “Our children are not for sale and they are not ever forgotten.” More than 421,000 missing child reports were sent to the FBI in 2019, according to the NCMEC. Washington said 91% of those are considered endangered runaways, of which one in six, or about 60,000, are likely to become a sufferer.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp applauded the operation in a tweet Thursday, saying the state will. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said his office has helped place these sufferer in rehabilitation centers. “It can be in many ways a hidden case, one that lives in the shadows,” he said at Thursday’s press conference. “I always go back to the fact that if we can save one child from a life, we’ve done our job. And this operation did that for many, many children.”
This article was originally published on the goodmorningamerica.com on 28th Aug 2020,
