KENTWOOD, La. (WVUE) - A man accused of kidnapping a 2-year-old boy in the Kentwood area near the Louisiana-Mississippi state line has been booked, according to the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office.

An amber alert was issued by state police early Wednesday morning (Oct. 1) for the toddler, who was taken from his mother.

The sheriff’s office says that the boy and his mother were riding in a vehicle with James Casey Mercier, 49, of McComb, Mississippi, when they pulled into the Louisiana Welcome Center north of Kentwood.

When the boy’s mother got out of the vehicle to take him out of the back seat, authorities say that’s when Mercier drove off with the boy still in the back seat around 9:45 Tuesday night.

Around 6 a.m. on Wednesday, the vehicle was found behind a Kentwood business with

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