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Missing Mesa children found safe in Texas, father arrested

Mesa police said all four children are safe and are being transferred back to Arizona.

EL PASO, Texas — A man who took his four children during a supervised visit in Mesa has been arrested in Texas, according to the Mesa Police Department. 

Police said Dequan, 8, Tatiana, 10, Lashaun, 13, and Devon Washington, 14, were taken by their non-custodial father, Devon M. Washington, Sunday at the Bell Bank Sports Complex near Pecos and Ellsworth roads. 

Police said Mesa detectives were able to develop information that possibly placed Washington and the kids in El Paso, Texas. 

Mesa police said FBI agents in El Paso found the white Toyota Rav4 Washinton driving in a fast-food parking lot. Agents went inside the restaurant, where they located both Washington and the four children. Washington was taken into custody without incident.

The children were unharmed and placed with Texas DCS until they could be transferred back to the Arizona Department of Child Safety.

Washington was taken to the El Paso Sheriff’s Office and booked on his warrant. 

He will be extradited to Arizona, where he will face four counts of abduction of a child from a state agency, a class 3 felony.

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