This article originally appeared on People.
A Louisiana man who kidnapped a 2-month-old boy and then left him under a freeway overpass later explained to detectives that “God told him to do it,” authorities allege.
Police in Minden, Louisiana, say the child was discovered at 7:02 a.m. Monday, about four hours after his mother reported him missing. In a dramatic moment, the baby was rescued after a homeless man tipped off police.
Kyshaun Wilson, 25, was arrested on suspicion of aggravated kidnapping of a child and is being held in a local jail pending charges. It was not immediately clear if he has retained an attorney.
Minden police tell PEOPLE they got a call around 2 a.m. Monday from the child’s mother, who reported that Wilson, a close friend of the family, had taken the baby from her sister’s home.
“They didn’t think anything at first and thought he was walking around trying to calm the baby down,” says Minden Police Department detective Keith King. “The longer he was gone, the longer they got worried and called us and said something wasn’t right.”
King says that after Wilson was in custody, he allegedly told detectives that he had taken the baby into the kitchen to give him some milk on Monday morning, but the baby told him he needed to leave the home.
“He said God told him to do it,” King claims. “He [Wilson] thought he was obeying God, and he thought, ‘Who am I to disobey?’ ”
Wilson allegedly told police he carried the baby for a mile and a half and then set him down under the I-20 overpass near Minden. “He said something about there was a light and when he placed the child there the baby went to sleep. And he felt he needed to leave, so he left,” King says.
King says Wilson then walked around 28 miles to Shreveport, Louisiana, where he allegedly told a homeless man he knew what he had done and asked him for guidance.
That man called the police, who made contact with Wilson, King says.
“He [Wilson] said he did something bad,” King says. “We thought the child was dead.”
Eventually, according to King, Wilson told them where the child was. “I think his conscience was weighing on him,” King says.
Police found the boy lying underneath the overpass on top of a concrete wall 30 minutes later. “It was just wide enough for the child and four-and-a-half feet high,” King says. “It was a nice incline. If the child fell, off he would have rolled down the hill [and] into the interstate.”
But the child was unharmed, except for a few scratches.
“We are very very thankful,” King says. “There are snakes, ants — there are so many different scenarios that could have happened to the child. And luckily it didn’t.”