Tawana Russell found out Wednesday morning her 3-year-old was alive and safe.
"Amazing," the 18-year-old mother said. "I jumped out of bed and just got ready and went to go get him."
When Texas City police detectives returned Russell's son, Alex, to her she described him as "scraped up and bruised and just horrible."
Russell, holding Alex and prepared to give detectives a statement, spoke with Channel 2 outside the Texas City Police Department. She said she planned to take Alex to a hospital to get him checked out.
On May 1 Russell dropped off little Alex with his grandmother, 40-year-old Beverly Mickens, she said. Alex was supposed to be returned to Russell Sunday, May 6 but that never happened.
"(Beverly) is horrible. That was a horrible thing to do," she said. "I know she wouldn't hurt him but you still can't take a kid like that from their mom."
"(The) last thing we heard: (Beverly Mickens) stopped at EZ Pawn (In Galveston)," said Donald Mickens, Beverly Mickens' husband and Alex's stepgrandfather. "(She) was pawning the speakers and stuff out of my truck, met some homeless guy, they started using drugs and then they just were on the road."
"We contacted (Beverly) and talked to her, and my main thing was trying to get the kids," Donald said. "I got my three kids, before all this started happening, but with Alex she wouldn't give Alex up."
Texas City police received a 911 call from a manager at the Scottish Inns, on Ferry Road in Galveston. The manager tells Channel 2 he called police because he watched as the Amber Alert was reported on the news Wednesday morning. The description of the SUV matched one that was parked right outside the hotel office window. When police arrived, Alex was there with Beverly Mickens. The manager told Channel 2 Mickens was arrested.
In 2013, Mickens was arrested for another Amber Alert, this time involving her own children. She ended up taking her four children with her to Tennessee which was in violation of a Child Protective Services court order due to her extensive drug use and children's unstable home life, according to a press release. All of the children were unharmed.