Cops searching for 5-year-old missing from West Philadelphia school
The search is on for a 5-year-old girl who police say was abducted from a West Philadelphia elementary school Wednesday.
This post has been updated.
Cops have announced a $10,000 reward for information in the abduction of a 5-year-old girl. The search is on for Na'illa Robinson, who police say was abducted from a West Philadelphia elementary school Monday.
Na'illa was picked up by an unknown woman around 8:50 a.m. at Bryant Elementary School, 60th Street and Cedar Avenue, according to police and school district officials. It was not discovered that the wrong person had picked the girl up until around 3 p.m. when school let out, according to Fernando Gallard, spokesman for the district.
Na'illa, described as a 4-foot-tall African-American girl with curly hair and glasses, is seen on surveillance video from the school leaving with an unidentified woman who wore a black burqa, Lt. John Walker of the Southwest Detective Division said. The girl was wearing a light-blue shirt, navy-blue pants and black-and-bright-pink sneakers.
The woman identified herself to school employees as "Tiffany," Walker said, but her signature in the school visitor log is illegible.
Police said it was discovered around 3 p.m. that the girl had been taken, when a caretaker from the child's after-school program came to the school to pick her up, but she wasn't there.
Gallard called the fact that the girl was allowed to leave school premises with an unknown adult a "serious break in procedure" and said district officials are working with police in the investigation. The woman, Gallard said, did not wait at the school's front office for the child to be brought to her, as district protocol dictates. Instead, she somehow made it to the girl's classroom, where she told a teacher that the child had already been "checked out" of school.
"That is completely against our protocol," Gallard said. "An adult is not allowed to go to any classrooms to check children out. They're supposed to go to the administrative office, their ID is supposed to be checked and they are supposed to be checked to see if they are the guardian of record or parent. If they are, then they call classroom for the child to be brought down, because we don't want adults roaming the building."
Walker said that in the surveillance video of the girl leaving school with the unknown woman, the girl does not appear to believe she is in any danger. The child, however, is often picked up by different people from an after-school program, according to police.
An Amber Alert was issued.
Morgan Zalot can be reached at zalotm@phillynews.com or 215-854-5928.