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Father on the run, accused of putting gun to 6-week-old baby’s head in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH — A man accused of putting a gun to his 6-week-old baby’s head is on the run after a SWAT team was called late Monday night to a home in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood, police said.

The man’s wife called police after she said he took their baby out of her arms, then pulled out a gun as he held the infant at a home on Wilner Drive in the city’s East Hills neighborhood, according to a criminal complaint. Her other child went to a neighbor’s home and said, “Daddy put a gun to the baby’s head.”

The neighbor told police she then saw the man, 29-year-old Lester Jackson Jr., walk out of the home with the baby in his shirt and drive away in a Jeep, the complaint said. The Jeep belonged to the baby’s mother.

Police found out Jackson might have gone to a house on Mt. Vernon Street in Homewood, the complaint said. Officers went there and a woman eventually came out and told them Jackson dropped off the baby and left.

A SWAT team was called in and found the baby unharmed on the home’s second floor, police said. Jackson was not inside.

Jackson is charged with endangering the welfare of children, robbery of a motor vehicle and terroristic threats. He is also charged with a gun violation, as he is not supposed to have a gun after being found guilty of robbery in 2007, police said.