Amber Alert issued for Lansing toddler, 2: What we know

Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press
Updated ·1 min read
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Wynter Cole Smith, 2, who is described as Black and has braided, shoulder-length hair, was last seen Sunday, July 2, 2023, wearing a white T-shirt with rainbows, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit child protection organization.
Wynter Cole Smith, 2, who is described as Black and has braided, shoulder-length hair, was last seen Sunday, July 2, 2023, wearing a white T-shirt with rainbows, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit child protection organization.

Lansing police issued an Amber Alert — an emergency alert asking the public for help finding an abducted child — early Monday for a 2-year-old girl, who authorities said is endangered and missing.

And the man who police said might have taken her was arrested in St. Clair Shores after a brief chase.

The girl, Wynter Cole Smith — described as Black with braided, shoulder-length hair — was last seen Sunday wearing a white T-shirt with rainbows, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit child protection organization.

The child, the alert said, may have been with Rashad Maleek Trice, a 26-year-old man, in a white 2013 Chevrolet Impala, with a Michigan plate. Police said he was arrested just before 6 a.m. and taken into custody, but the toddler is still missing.

According to the Lansing State Journal, local police said were dispatched to a home where they found a 22-year-old woman with stab wounds and other signs of assault. She identified Trice, who she had been in a relationship with, to police and was taken to a hospital. The missing child, police said, is not Trice's biological daughter.

The FBI, the Lansing State Journal reported, is coordinating the search for the toddler.

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Authorities are asking anyone with information to call 517-483-4600 or Crime Stoppers at 517-483-7867.

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Amber Alert issued for Wynter Cole Smith, 2, missing girl from Lansing