Police's search for a missing Childs

Police departments often notify the public and the media to ask for help when a child is missing, but Friday's notification was different: it was not a child that police in Fairfax County said they were looking for but Childs.

It seems, according to the county police, that the matter involved one Dominique Ashley Childs, who is 26 years old. Police said he disappeared from criminal court on Tuesday, "in the middle of an ongoing trial."

He was facing charges of burglary, grand larceny and receiving stolen property, police said.

When a recess was called for lunch, the police said in a statement, he left the courthouse.

And, police said, he “never returned.”

Early in the day Friday police issued a statement asking the public for help in finding Childs.

They said he had outstanding warrants alleging failure to appear on the charges and for alleged contempt of court.

A release issued Friday morning called Childs a fugitive on the run.

In the afternoon, a second release said Childs had been apprehended. He was found at the home of an acquaintance in Arlington, police said.

Police said Fairfax detectives and the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force made the arrest without incident. Childs was taken to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center where the warrants were served, police said.

--Martin Weil