Kearney Police arrest fugitive after week-long search
KEARNEY Neb. — A man wanted on two counts of child abuse is now in custody after being on the run for a week.
The Kearney Police Department says they were notified at 3:30 Friday morning that 24-year-old Jacob Ellingson was inside a house in the area of 115th Road and Grove Road, which is about four miles north of Kearney. A news release says officers negotiated with Ellingson over cell phone for several minutes before he voluntarily exited. Police arrested him and he was booked into the Buffalo County Jail.
“I appreciate the patience from our community and more importantly, the willingness to report information, as officers followed up on countless leads with professionalism and commitment,” Police Chief Bryan Waugh said in a news release. “I am incredibly thankful and relieved this fugitive is in custody.”
Multiple law enforcement agencies launched an unsuccessful seven-hour search of a cornfield on Tuesday after a report of seeing Ellingson in the area. That area was about five miles from where he was arrested on Friday.
Ellingson was wanted in connection to injuries that sent a one-year-old girl to a hospital on Friday, Sept. 8. A news release says the girl was having trouble breathing and was flown by medical helicopter to Children’s Hospital in Omaha. She remains hospitalized.