Missing 6-year-old boy with autism found trying to purchase toy at Target
BELLAIRE, Texas (KTRK) -- A nearly two-hour search for a missing 6-year-old with autism ended with the child found at the Meyerland Plaza Target.
"Thank God, thank God they found him and he's fine," said family friend Sapan Singh.
Kishan Shah was first reported missing around 4:40 p.m. Thursday when he walked out of his family's home in the 4400 block of Dorothy Street in Bellaire.
It's believed he got to Beechnut and turned west. Walking alongside rush hour traffic, he passed businesses, gas stations and even made it through the busy intersection under 610. In total, he walked more than a mile to Meyerland Plaza.
It was inside the store where a Target spokesperson tells us he was found trying to purchase something at self-checkout.
Employees started looking for his parents in the store, and that's when a customer walked up and said her mother had just seen him on ABC13 Eyewitness News, he was missing.
"We're incredibly proud of the quick thinking of our Target team members, who recognized the missing child, quickly called law enforcement and stayed with him until the police arrived to reunite him with his family," said a Target spokesperson.
Police were called in and the ABC13 SkyEye camera caught him walking out with police and a new toy in hand.
Meanwhile at his home, friends, neighbors and police gathered to conduct searches and canvass the area as concern grew over their close location to Brays Bayou.
"It happened so quickly, those minutes were hours," said family friend Swati Narayan.
Shah was brought home to a very relieved group of searchers. They tell us he was unharmed and unfazed.
"It took a village and it happened very quickly and it couldn't have happened without everyone banding together, but this is what Houston is, right? We come together," said Narayan
