Report: Father takes eight-month-old at gunpoint, flees to Fitzgerald

On the morning of Thursday, June 22, 2023, a deputy responded to a local cargo plant where a Fitzgerald man allegedly took his eight-month-old son from the boy’s mother and her boyfriend at gunpoint.

A sheriff’s office report says that the officer responded to a kidnapping and aggravated assault call at Titanium Cargo shortly after 10 a.m. on June 22. When he arrived, he spoke with the baby’s mother and her boyfriend. The mother stated that her son’s father, Ezekiel Slacks of Fitzgerald, came to her workplace and met her outside. All three were outside when Slacks said that he didn’t want the boyfriend around the child. Then they went inside, the report says, and Slacks picked up the child. 

At that point, the boyfriend grabbed Slacks by the arm and told him not to take the child. That angered Slacks, the report says, and he handed the child back to the mother. Then he allegedly pulled out a gun and told the mother to give him the baby. The report says that she attempted to get between Slacks and her boyfriend but her boyfriend stopped her. Slacks left and the mother called 911.

The boyfriend’s statements were consistent with what the boy’s mother said, according to the report.

The mother stated that Slacks has no visitation rights to the child but they’d never had any problems with visitation until that day.

Slacks left the location with the child in an Infiniti car and headed back to Fitzgerald. A Ben Hill County deputy stopped him as he came into Fitzgerald. The child was in the car but he was not in a car seat.

Slacks was arrested and charged with kidnapping, interference with custody, and pointing/aiming a pistol at another person. He was jailed but has since been released.

Officers took the child back to his mother. He was unharmed.