KALAMAZOO COUNTY, Mich. — The father of a previously missing infant has been located and arrested in Kalamazoo County after fleeing from authorities and intentionally crashing into a Michigan State Police cruiser.
According to a press release from the MSP Marshall Post, troopers were called in to help Emmett Township Police and the Calhoun County Sheriff's Department around 9 a.m. Saturday in locating a 5-day-old baby and his father. The father had just fled the scene of a domestic assault, MSP said.
The infant, Jeffrey Michael Smith Jr., was missing for a couple of hours Saturday morning. Authorities were trying to find the child after his father, Jeffery Michael Smith Sr. of Burlington, made comments that he meant to harm the child.
MSP said the baby was eventually found at his maternal grandmother's home in Newton Township. While officers waited for the baby's mother, who was the victim in the domestic assault, Jeffrey Smith Sr. drove up but refused to cooperate. He drove off, colliding into an unoccupied parked MSP vehicle and causing significant damage.
Officers did not immediately go after him, but they did put into calls to keep an eye out for his vehicle.
A short time later, a trooper patrolling Pavilion Township in Kalamazoo County saw Smith's vehicle on South 34th Street near East O Avenue. The trooper, Timothy Roberts, went after Smith and tried to stop him. The release said it seemed like Smith complied, slowing down to pull over, but then he put his vehicle in reverse and intentionally backed into Roberts' patrol car, getting stuck.
Smith was eventually arrested without any further incident, MSP said. He was taken to the Kalamazoo County Jail on various charges from both MSP and the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department. He will face additional charges in Calhoun County from both Emmett Township Police and again by MSP.
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