Four Out of Five Cooley Children Found, Mother Arrested For Kidnapping

Izetta Cooley's husband is accused of shooting Gabriel Perez outside McDonald's

MOORHEAD, Minn. — Four children are found safe after their mother, Izetta Cooley, took off with them when she was ordered not to contact them.

Moorhead Police say executed a search warrant at Izetta Cooley’s house. She was arrested for kidnapping her children from Mower County, Minnesota.

“When she found out her children were going to be taken into protective custody, she went down and retrieved those children, with that incident, that led to her getting a warrant placed on her for kidnapping,” Capt. Deric Swenson with Moorhead Police said.

Four out of the five children are with Clay County Social Services, but one teen, Morgan Cooley, is still missing.

“Our main focus is not to get Izetta with her warrant, it was more to make sure her children were safe,” Swenson said.

Cooley’s husband, Miguel Cooley, Sr., is accused of shooting Gabriel Perez outside McDonald’s last week.

“We’re looking at trying to protect these kids, based on the incident that happened last week, and we’re just looking to make sure that the kids are safe,” Swenson said.

A 19-year-old man, Miguel Cooley, Jr., says he’s the family’s oldest son. He says he hasn’t seen his father since before the McDonald’s shooting.

“I just didn’t believe it. I still don’t believe it. I’m just trying to live. I just rap about the struggle,” he said.

He says he doesn’t know much about the case with his mother and siblings.

“It hurts. The whole situation should’ve never happened. It’s hard seeing your family split up so fast within a split second,” he said.

Izetta Cooley is being held in the Clay County Jail and will be transferred to Mower County to face charges.