Newly released body camera video is showing the moment an urgent search for two missing Atlanta sisters ended with officers cutting the lock off a tow trailer and pulling the children to safety. According to the Atlanta Police Department and footage reviewed by Atlanta media, officers found 4-year-old Zola Cooper and her 11-month-old sister, Norah Cooper, inside the trailer on Monday, August 17, with their babysitter, 42-year-old Lakesha Brown, who is now accused of kidnapping them.
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The video, released by Atlanta police on Tuesday, August 18, shows officers approaching the locked trailer at the Gateway South Apartments on Sylvan Road in southwest Atlanta. According to Atlanta News First, an officer used bolt cutters to remove the lock before police opened the rear door and discovered Brown and the children inside. Officers can be heard responding to the crying girls before removing them from the trailer and taking Brown into custody.The conditions inside are now a major part of the case. According to arrest warrant details obtained by FOX 5 Atlanta, the tow trailer had no air conditioning and only an overhead ventilation system. Investigators said the outside temperature reached approximately 97 degrees that day and described the interior as unclean and unsuitable for human habitation. The Atlanta sisters kidnapping investigation ultimately resulted in Brown being charged with two counts of kidnapping and two counts of first-degree cruelty to children.
The rescue followed more than a day of uncertainty for the girls’ mother, Elica Redding. According to CBS Atlanta, Redding said she first encountered Brown through social media after Brown posted about doing hair for expecting mothers. Redding said Brown reached out to her more than once before she eventually accepted the offer, and the two began talking and developed a friendship. Police said that relationship grew over roughly a year.
Atlanta News First reported that Brown’s arrest warrants describe the online space as a Facebook “pregnancy mom group” and allege that Brown presented herself as someone who could help mothers with babysitting and other services. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that Redding said this was the first time she had allowed Brown to actually take the children with her while babysitting, despite Brown having previously spent time around the family.
According to the arrest warrants cited by Atlanta News First, Redding agreed to let Brown babysit the girls on Saturday night, August 15. Brown allegedly told Redding she planned to take the children to Walmart and Candy Utopia before bringing them to a designated grandmother’s home. Police said that return never happened.
The explanation Redding says she received next raised even more concern. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Redding said Brown stopped responding and later claimed she and the girls had been involved in a vehicle crash. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that Redding began calling hospitals, but staff could not locate any record of Brown or the children being treated. Police later said they found no evidence supporting Brown’s crash story. Redding called 911 at approximately 10:30 p.m. Sunday, August 16.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation then issued a Levi’s Call, Georgia’s version of an Amber Alert, for Zola and Norah on behalf of Atlanta police. According to the GBI alert, authorities believed Brown was traveling with the girls in a white Ford F350 with an Alabama license plate and warned that the children were believed to be in extreme danger.
Investigators eventually narrowed the search to Sylvan Road. According to the arrest warrants reported by FOX 5 Atlanta and Atlanta News First, the FBI used cellphone location data connected to Brown’s phone to identify the area around the Gateway South Apartments. Atlanta police, the FBI, and the GBI searched the property before an Atlanta police fugitive detective heard a baby crying from the tow trailer. Officers then forced their way inside.
The Atlanta sisters kidnapping case has also renewed scrutiny of a separate allegation against Brown in Alabama. According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Brown was accused in August 2021 of kidnapping Kamarion Taylor, who was only four days old at the time. Sheriff’s officials said Brown was considered a family friend and was inside the Fairfield home with the infant, his mother and grandmother before the baby disappeared.
In that case, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said Kamarion’s mother had not been feeling well and went to rest. When she woke up, both her baby and Brown were gone. Authorities said Brown later told the mother that the infant was still in his playpen. Family members subsequently pointed investigators toward social media photos and videos that appeared to show the baby, along with older posts in which Brown had allegedly claimed she recently gave birth to twin boys.
Sheriff’s investigators said Brown was taken into custody without the infant and denied involvement in his disappearance. Additional tips eventually led detectives to a home at Woodward Estates in Lipscomb, Alabama, where Kamarion was found safe and returned to his mother. The Bessemer District Attorney’s Office later obtained a first-degree kidnapping warrant against Brown, and her bond was set at $100,000, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
That Alabama case had not gone to trial before the Atlanta sisters’ kidnapping. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that court records show Brown was scheduled for trial in May 2026 but failed to appear. Following her arrest in Atlanta, Alabama prosecutors filed a motion seeking to revoke her bond, arguing that she violated its conditions by missing court and by facing new criminal charges in Georgia.
According to the newest Atlanta warrants, Brown later acknowledged to investigators that the Cooper sisters had been in her custody and that she should have returned them when their mother asked. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that investigators said Brown could not provide a logical explanation for why she failed to return the children. A motive for the alleged abduction has not been publicly established.
Redding told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she now believes the trust she placed in Brown was deliberately exploited. “I thought she was someone I could trust,” Redding said. “When I put all the pieces together, I just feel like she intentionally wasn’t gonna bring them back. It was her plan the whole time.”
Both girls were evaluated after their rescue and were reported to be in good health, according to Atlanta police. Brown remained in the Fulton County Jail without bond as of Tuesday and waived her initial court appearance, while the Georgia kidnapping case and the unresolved Alabama case continued moving through separate legal processes.
