A seven-year-old Ohio girl pleaded with her father not to kill her as he threatened to kill her and himself during a standoff with police before he was shot by law enforcement, with the young girl saying, "I don't want to go to heaven today."
Charles Ryan Alexander, 43, kidnapped his daughter, Oaklynn, from her grandmother’s house in Jefferson County on Nov. 11. Alexander did not have legal custody of his child.
The girl was the subject of an Amber Alert that prompted a police pursuit after the Brunswick Division of Police located the child in the city of Brunswick, according to the Medina County Sheriff’s Office. The driver refused to pull over for an attempted traffic stop, and multiple jurisdictions joined the pursuit.
Police eventually used stop sticks to deflate Alexander’s tires and force his vehicle to come to a stop, which led to a standoff with law enforcement in a parking lot.
Audio of Alexander's communications with law enforcement revealed the armed father threatening to kill his daughter and himself, according to WKYC.
"I will shoot us both, stand back!" he shouted.
Oaklynn was heard in the background, repeatedly begging her father not to carry out his threat. "Please don't," she said.
Alexander also threatened his child's mother, telling the girl, "I wanna talk to her mother. If you’re listening, Ashley, you should've called."
The girl then asks her father if they are "both going to heaven."
"How do you know we're going to heaven?" she asks.
Her father replies, "We'll both go."
Oaklynn continues to ask her father questions.
"I am going to heaven?" she asked. But when she realizes what it would mean for her to go to heaven, she shouts, "No!"
"I don't want to go to heaven today," Oaklynn was heard telling her father, who responds, "I didn't want it to happen either, I just wanted to talk to your mother."
A 911 dispatcher then tells Alexander, "I know you didn't want to hurt [your daughter] and you didn't want it to be like this."
"Let's not do anything we can’t undo," the dispatcher added.
Oaklynn can be heard repeatedly asking if she is "going to heaven today" and at one point yelled, "I don't want to!"
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Another dispatcher tells Alexander, "Just keep talking to her if you don't want her to be scared."
"Let's not do anything that is going to make it even more unfair to her, 'cause you love her, I know you do," the dispatcher said.
Police eventually fired multiple shots at Alexander, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Oaklynn was safely returned to her family after the shooting.
