A 13-year-old San Jose boy who disappeared before dawn earlier this month has been found safe, closing out an emergency alert that had stretched across five Northern California counties. Damien Padilla went missing in the predawn hours earlier this month, last Sunday at approximately 2 AM, and the Endangered Missing Advisory issued on his behalf was deactivated today after he was located.
Alert Spanned From San Jose to Sacramento
According to CHP Alerts, the California Highway Patrol’s public alerts account, the advisory was activated on behalf of the San Jose Police Department after Padilla was last seen near Story Road in San Jose, Santa Clara County. SFGate reported that he was specifically last spotted near the intersection of Story Road and Lyndale Avenue in East San Jose. The advisory covered Santa Clara, Alameda, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Sacramento counties.
The advisory described Padilla as 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 130 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. At the time he went missing, he was wearing red sweatpants, a light-colored shirt, and black shoes. Authorities asked anyone who spotted him to call 9-1-1, and the advisory did not specify where or how he was ultimately located.
How California’s Endangered Missing Advisories Work
Padilla’s case didn’t meet the strict abduction criteria required for an AMBER Alert, but state law still allows for rapid public notification in situations like his. Under California Government Code section 8594.11, established through Assembly Bill 946, local police departments can request an Endangered Missing Advisory when someone goes missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances and is considered at risk because of age, health, or potential danger, according to Justia Law.
That state framework fulfills the requirements of the federal Ashanti Alert Act of 2018, filling gaps left by the stricter AMBER, Silver, and Blue Alert criteria, according to the California Highway Patrol. Every advisory statewide is managed through CHP’s Emergency Notification and Tactical Alert Center, a 24-hour hub in Sacramento that coordinates with local departments and decides how far an alert should spread. That’s why Padilla’s case reached digital signs and flyers across all five counties, since he was believed to be traveling in a vehicle that could have crossed jurisdictions, according to the advisory.
San Jose Police Procedures and Statewide Missing-Child Numbers
San Jose police maintain no waiting period for reporting a missing child, and cases involving minors or suspected foul play trigger immediate emergency dispatch, according to the San Jose Police Department. That policy helps explain how quickly Padilla’s case moved from a local report to a five-county public alert…