Abduction suspect was facing charges of kidnapping baby's mom

MONROE, NC (WBTV) - Police say a baby that was kidnapped in the parking lot of a doctor's office in Monroe Tuesday morning was found in SC and is in good condition. 

Meanwhile, new details are surfacing about the suspect.  He was out on bail on charges of trying to kidnap the baby's mother last year -- while she was pregnant with the same baby that was abducted Tuesday, authorities said.

Chesterfield County Sheriff's Lt. Briana Davis says deputies stopped a car Tuesday evening on state Highway 207 near Pageland, SC, and one of the alleged kidnappers, Lonnie Cecil Buchanan Jr., 41, ran into the woods with the baby.

Investigators say Buchanan stayed in the woods with the infant during heavy rains.  However, the baby did not stay out in the elements very long, according to police.  Buchanan surrendered seven hours later around 3 a.m. on Wednesday.

A woman who allegedly helped Buchanan was also arrested and charged in the kidnapping.

According to the Monroe Police Department, 4-month-old Jalleel Xamir Howard was kidnapped Tuesday morning when a woman distracted the child's mother and took the child.

Buchanan has been charged with second-degree kidnapping and he is being held in the Union County Jail on a $250,000 bond.

Beulah Marie Steen, 23, of Monroe, who is suspected of distracting the baby's mother during the abduction, faces the same charge and is being held on a $50,000 bond.

The baby was taken to a local hospital around 2 am where the child was evaluated and released sometime after 3 am, authorities said.

This is not Buchanan's first run-in with the law. 

Buchanan was already scheduled to appear in court in September on a kidnapping charge from 2009 in which he is accused of kidnapping Tanara Howard, 20, who is the mother of the abducted baby. She delivered the baby in March 2010 and would have been pregnant with the same baby in November of 2009.

According to the warrant, Buchanan allegedly broke into Howard's home on November 11, 2009.  He assaulted her, held a sharp object to her neck and kidnapped her, the warrant states.

Following that incident, two warrants were issued against Buchanan - one for assault and kidnapping, and the other was for burglary with the intent to commit felony rape. 

On Tuesday, police say the baby was with his mother at a doctor's office parking lot on Franklin Street in Monroe when he was snatched. Officers say Steen, who was with Buchanan, walked over to Howard and distracted her while she was removing her son from the car.  Police say that's when Buchanan snatched the baby.

Witnesses tell WBTV the kidnapping took less than a minute.

"It was quick," one witness said.  "She bit the girl, they were fighting.  She ripped the shirt off the guy, but he reached in and snatched the baby out of the seat.  The seat was still fastened."

Another witness told us the mother chased Buchanan.

"I was like, I want to get that baby," said the witness. "Cause he had it by the bottom and the back half was reared back and his head was just bobbing back.  As soon as I got down to the bushes, he jumped into the car.  The car was already running."

The Monroe Police Department issued an AMBER Alert Tuesday afternoon. 

It is still unclear if Buchanan is or is not the baby's father at this point.

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