Columbus police now call 7-year-old boy an 'endangered missing' child after mom's arrest

Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch
Columbus police are searching for 7-year-old Kingston Gillyard, who has been missing since October from the city's East Side. Police believed she was with his noncustodial mother, but when she was arrested Thursday on several charges he was not with her. She is now considered a suspect in Kingston's disappearance.
Columbus police are searching for 7-year-old Kingston Gillyard, who has been missing since October from the city's East Side. Police believed she was with his noncustodial mother, but when she was arrested Thursday on several charges he was not with her. She is now considered a suspect in Kingston's disappearance.

Columbus police now consider a child who had been missing since October to be "endangered missing" after his noncustodial mother who was believed to have him was arrested Thursday on unrelated charges and refused to tell authorities the child's location.

Columbus police Missing Persons Unit detectives are asking for the public's help to find 7-year-old Kingston Gillyard, who has been missing since October 2023 from the city's East Side. Kingston had been kept from his custodial parent by his mother, Shadasia Gillyard, who was arrested Thursday by the U.S. Marshals Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team (SOFAST) and Columbus police after a brief standoff in the 1900 block of Fountainview Court on the city's East Side.

Gillyard was charged by Columbus police with felonious assault, accused of shooting a man multiple times around 12:45 a.m. Feb. 13, 2023, in the 300 block of East Livingston Avenue. She was later released from jail on bond but failed to appear in court and her bond was revoked.

She is also wanted by Whitehall police on several charges, accused of sending a man text messages threatening to kill him unless he dropped criminal charges against her. Among those charges are aggravated menacing, intimidating a witness and criminal damaging.

In addition, Gillyard is charged with interference with custody for allegedly taking her son from the custodial parent. Gillyard is considered a suspect in young Kingston's disappearance and has refused to tell authorities where the boy is at.

Kingston is described as 3-feet-4 inches, weighing 55 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Columbus police did not say when he was last seen or what he was wearing when he went missing.

Columbus police Missing Persons Unit detectives ask if you have any information regarding the child's whereabouts, you call 614-645-2358 or 614-645-4545.

smeighan@dispatch.com

@ShahidMeighan

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus police ask for help in locating missing 'endangered' child

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