Two Louisiana sanitation workers may have saved the life of a 10-year-old girl who went missing from New Iberia.
According to WWL-TV News, Dion Merrick and Brandon Antonie worked the morning shift for Pelican Waste when they spotted a silver vehicle involved in an Amber Alert issued early Monday morning.
Jalisa Lasalle, the little girl who went missing, was inside the Nissan when the two men discovered the car parked on a rural road in St. Martin Parish around 7:00 a.m.
Merrick recalled seeing the Amber Alert and remembered the car’s make and model as well as the license plate information. He and Antonie used their work truck to block the vehicle from leaving the scene. He captured his valiant actions and the suspect’s arrest on Facebook Live.
“Me and Brandon Antonie both seen it. I told him that’s the car,” Merrick said on Facebook Live.” I just saw this gray car parked in the field. I just saved that little girl’s life, bro. I just saved that little girl’s life. Thank God.”
“Once I noticed the silver Nissan, I backed up and blocked him in. I called 911, and they answered and said we have an officer minutes away. Before I could hang up the phone, the officer was there,” he continued.
The Facebook video, which has garnered close to two million views, captured Merrick’s relief and excitement after deputies from the St.John Parish arrived on the scene.
“Something told me like just look; I said, ‘What is that car doing in that field like that? What the car doing?’ Guess what, that’s the dude with the little girl,” Merrick said in his video. “That’s God.”
Well-wishers, along with deputies, offered to buy the sanitation workers lunch for their courageous effort.
“I was just doing my job, man. I was just doing my job and actually came across somebody who needed help,” Merrick said. “Got me tearing up.”
Lasalle is believed to have been abducted on Sunday afternoon by Michael R. Sereal, a registered sex offender. He faces aggravated kidnapping charges.