Ogden police find 5 children locked in shed while searching for father

OGDEN — Body camera footage shows the moments when Ogden police officers found five children locked inside an outdoor shed while trying to serve an arrest warrant on their father last month.

On Nov. 15, Ogden police responded to a local business for a theft call involving 28-year-old Gabriela Salgado-Estrada and her five children under the age of 6, according to a police affidavit.

The affidavit reported that Estrada “placed new, unpaid-for items on several of the children” while she was in the store.

“The children then took the tags off of those items, and Gabriela made no attempt to pay for them,” the affidavit stated. “She also placed items in the shopping cart, underneath a child carrier, that were not paid for. The unpaid items totaled just over $200.”

Police arrested Gabriela at the store and later booked her into the Weber County Jail on suspicion of retail theft, a class B misdemeanor.

Read more: Ogden man had confrontations with girl’s parents in days leading up to Amber Alert

According to the affidavit, the children’s father arrived at the store to pick up the five children. The man gave police a Mexican ID with the name Omar Garcia and left the scene with the children.

Police soon discovered that the ID was fake and that the man was 36-year-old Wilber Rojas, who had an active third-degree felony and a class C misdemeanor arrest warrant.

According to the affidavit, officers went to the home address that the couple provided to police. Officers reported finding Rojas’s truck, which he used to pick up the children, outside the address.

“Contact was made with residents who were uncooperative, but stated that Wilber was not at the residence. A search warrant was obtained for the home for the apprehension of Wilber,” the affidavit stated. “The warrant was served and, multiple times, Wilber was called out by police.”

While searching the property, body camera footage showed officers finding a backyard shed locked from the outside by a bolt lock and a cord. Officers cut the cord, unlocked the door, and asked anyone inside the shed to come out.

The footage showed the four children walking to the door, with two of them partially clothed. The officers began escorting them out, with one of the children trying to reenter the shed to retrieve the infant still in the cradle.

One of the officers picked up the infant and took them to a relative who was waiting outside the residence.

“Why are (the children) locked in the shed?” the Ogden PD officer asked the relative. “They couldn’t get out. They were locked from the outside in.”

“They shouldn’t be in there,” the relative responded.

About 30 minutes later, the body camera footage showed officers locating Rojas hiding in an abandoned vehicle in the backyard. Officers fired a bean-bag round at the car in an effort to get Rojas out of the car.

Rojas complied with the officer’s commands and was arrested without further incident.

According to the affidavit, the backyard shed was made of wood and had an electrical heater inside, without a “means of escape should a fire start in the shed.”

Rojas was booked into the Weber County Jail on suspicion of class A misdemeanor child abuse, providing a police officer with false information, and interfering with a police officer.

On Tuesday, Rojas pleaded guilty to an unrelated third-degree felony of having a fake ID when he attempted to open a bank account with a fraudulent Social Security card in February.

Read more: Cache County corrections deputy jailed for alleged aggravated child abuse against own child

---

Child abuse resources:

• Utah Domestic Violence Coalition operates a confidential statewide, 24-hour domestic abuse hotline at 1-800-897-LINK (5465). Resources are also available online: udvc.org. The statewide child abuse and neglect hotline is 1-855-323-DCFS (3237).

Help with Children

Those who feel stressed out with a child, who need a break or who feel like they need counseling or training can reach out to one of the following agencies:

• The Family Support Center has 15 locations throughout the state and offers a free crisis nursery for parents who have to keep appointments or who are stressed out. They also offer counseling and family mentoring. Call 801-955-9110 or visit familysupportcenter.org/contact.php for more information.
• Prevent Child Abuse Utah provides home visiting in Weber, Davis, and Box Elder counties. Parent Educators provide support, education, and activities for families with young children. Their statewide education team offers diverse trainings on protective factors, digital safety, bullying, and child sex trafficking. They are available for in-person or virtual trainings and offer free online courses for the community at pcautah.org.
• The Office of Home Visiting works with local agencies to provide home visits to pregnant women and young families who would like to know more about being parents. Home visitors are trained and can provide information about breastfeeding, developmental milestones, toilet training, nutrition, mental health, home safety, child development, and much more. Find out more at homevisiting.utah.gov.
• The Safe Haven law allows birth parents in Utah to safely and anonymously give up custody of their newborn child at any hospital in the state, with no legal consequences and no questions asked. The child’s mother can drop off the child, or the mother can ask someone else to do it for her. The newborns should be dropped off at hospitals that are open 24 hours a day. Newborns given up in this manner will be cared for by the hospital staff, and the Utah Division of Child and Family Services will find a home for the child. For more information, visit utahsafehaven.org or call the 24-hour hotline at 866-458-0058.

CSAM Prevention Resources and Victim Recovery: 

• The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children provides support to children who are victims of child sexual exploitation through emotional peer support for families, content removal of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and help getting connected to therapists and attorneys. The NCMEC also provides a CyberTipline where CSAM can be reported. Visit https://www.missingkids.org/gethelpnow/csam-resources for more information. 
• The Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force hosts a hub of resources for parents and offers local help to cases involving child sexual exploitation. 
• RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) provides a guide of safety measures to take in order to prevent children from being targeted in CSAM cases. 
• Thorn nonprofit organization creates products and programs that combat child sexual abuse at scale. It provides resources for families to help them identify the possible ways children can be exploited online, giving them proper terminology and statistics to keep them educated. For more information, visit https://www.thorn.org/research/child-sexual-abuse-material-csam/ 
• Utah Domestic Violence Coalition operates a confidential statewide, 24-hour domestic abuse hotline at 1-800-897-LINK (5465). Resources are also available online: udvc.org. The statewide child abuse and neglect hotline is 1-855-323-DCFS (3237).