HYATTSVILLE, Md. — Journalists normally stay out of a story.
But Wednesday all of that changed for WUSA-TV reporter Andrea McCarren and photographer Dave Satchell who helped authorities find a missing baby after an Amber Alert was issued for her.
"We've never had an experience like this," McCarren said.
McCarren was assigned to the Amber Alert story just after 12:30 p.m. ET Wednesday when Virginia authorities issued an alert for Liz Khatun.
Her mother, Flora Khatun, had fled a family services office in Annandale, Va., after social workers said Child Protective Services would be taking her daughter from her because they believed the girl was in extreme danger. Fairfax County Police issued the alert hoping that the public could help them find the 6-week-old.
McCarren and Satchell went to the District of Columbia suburb after getting a recent address for Khatun and spoke with several neighbors. One told them he thought he knew where Khatun was with her baby.
"The man was concerned for the safety of both of them," McCarren said. But he was afraid to go to police himself.
He asked McCarren to relay the message to authorities.
"All I kept thinking was 'Journalist, humanity; news, the safety of a baby,' " she said.
So McCarren called police.
She told them she had an address where the baby might be in Hyattsville, Md. Then she and Satchell drove to address, being careful not to alert the mother.
"We did not want to do anything to alienate the police investigation," McCarren said.
As they drove around the apartment complex, they saw a van. Its description and tags matched the Amber Alert information.
"You can imagine the feeling as I'm reading off the license-plate numbers and I'm also looking at my notes thinking this is in fact the car that police were looking for," she said. "This was the key to the missing 6-week-old baby."
This time there was no question that she would call police then wait, McCarren said.
"Both of us are parents, and there's nothing like a missing child that really gets you going," she said. They moved a little further away from the vehicle but kept an eye on it as FBI agents began staging in the area.
They waited at least 30 minutes for police to arrive.
"Part of our dilemma in this day and age is that we don't know if somebody is armed. We don't know their mental state," she said. "We just kept saying, 'We've got to get the baby. We've got to make sure that baby is safe.' "
Agents went into the apartment behind them and came out with a baby bundled in car seat.
"My heart sang. I felt like that baby is out of danger now," McCarren said.
Police then convened in the parking lot, so McCarren went to the apartment door thinking they were done with the investigation.
But when she knocked, she found Khatun crying hysterically, saying, "They took my baby! They took my baby!"
Authorities then went inside and took the mother into custody. Child Protective Services in Virginia had a court order to take the baby from Khatun and had terminated parental rights for four of her five other children. The reason was not immediately available.
"It was an astonishing situation to not only be personal involved in but to witness," she said.
Khatun had appealed to keep her parental rights in May, police said. She is now in jail in Upper Marlboro, Md., and is awaiting extradition to Fairfax County, Va., where she faces parental abduction charges.
Follow WUSA-TV on Twitter: @wusa9
