Zola, 4, and Norah Cooper, 11 months, were taken by a babysitter who befriended their mother on Facebook, according to court records

NEED TO KNOW

• New bodycam footage shows the moment two sisters were found safe after their babysitter allegedly kidnapped them
• Norah and Zola Cooper were found inside a trailer in the Atlanta area
• Lakesha Shanta Brown is charged with kidnapping the four-year-old and 11-month-old

New bodycam video shows the moment when authorities in Georgia found two young sisters after they were allegedly kidnapped by their babysitter.

In the video from Monday, Aug. 17, Atlanta police officers could be seen breaking into a locked, un-air-conditioned trailer to discover the girls, four-year-old Zola Cooper and her 11-month-old sister, Norah Cooper, and the woman allegedly responsible for taking them, Lakesha Shanta Brown.

“Show me your hands!” an officer yells, after the trailer’s door was opened. “Kids, we have kids’ hands!”

After spotting Brown, an officer orders the woman to surrender.

“Listen, Lakesha,” one officer yells. “Put your f—ing hands up. Put your hands up.”

An officer then enters the trailer and remove Zola and Norah. As the children cries, officers work to detain Brown.

“Don’t move or I will shoot you,” an officer tells Brown.

The woman eventually gets up from the floor and is led out of the trailer, which authorities later described as “unclean and unsuitable for human habitation.”

The sisters were taken to a children’s hospital for a medical evaluation and welfare check, while Brown was taken into custody.

After she was arrested, Brown allegedly admitted that she should have returned the girls when their mother asked her to, according to an affidavit for arrest obtained by PEOPLE.

Brown and the girls’ mother, Elica Redding, first met on a Facebook “Pregnancy Mom” group about a year before the alleged incident on Monday, according to the affidavit. Brown, who offered her services as a babysitter, became friendly with Redding and gained her trust, according to the records.

On Aug. 15, Redding agreed to let Brown babysit Zola and Norah, the affidavit states. Brown allegedly told Redding that she would take the children to Walmart and a place called “Candy Utopia.”

(The immersive candy-themed pop-up museum called Candytopia closed in Atlanta in 2022. There are no listings for a business called Candy Utopia in the Atlanta area.)

When Brown allegedly didn’t return the children at the appointed time and place on Monday — at Redding’s grandmother’s home on James P. Brawley Drive NW in Atlanta — Redding began calling Brown.

Brown “made an excuse for being late or for not arriving” and then told her, “I was in an accident; I don’t have your kids, and they are at DFCS.”

Child welfare officials and area hospitals had no record of the children, and Brown stopped answering phone calls and text messages.

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As detectives investigated Brown, they learned she had an active failure-to-appear warrant from Alabama in connection with a kidnapping case, according to the affidavit.

Authorities were able to pinpoint Brown and the children’s location after an Atlanta police fugitive detective — who was checking parked vehicles and a tow trailer in a parking lot —  heard a baby crying from inside the trailer, per the affidavit.

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