Montreal police are now searching de la Merci Park and des Bateliers Park for 10-year-old Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou, who has been missing from his parent’s Ahuntsic-Cartierville home for over 48 hours.
A command post was setup Wednesday morning at the park, in the northern end of the borough.
Montreal police combed through wooded areas and used ice-breakers on the Rivière des Prairies, which runs along the park’s northern shore.
The boy had been missing for just over 24 hours when Montreal police called for a province-wide Amber Alert Tuesday
Montreal police then cancelled the Amber Alert for Kouakou for technical reasons.
“It simply doesn’t hold the criteria for an Amber Alert,” said Raphael Bergeron, a spokesperson for Montreal police.
“It must fulfill at least three out of four.”
The four criteria are that law enforcement must confirm that an abduction has taken place; the child must be at risk of serious injury or death; there must be sufficient descriptive information of child, captor or captor’s vehicle; and the child must be under the age of 18.
The force took to Twitter to ask the public “to stay vigilant and report any information regarding Ariel to 911.”
WATCH: Police in Montreal are searching for 10-year-old Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou, who’s been missing since Monday afternoon.
Family members say Kouakou left his home Monday afternoon to go to a friend’s house.
“I am sad. There are no words to describe how I feel,” Kouadio Frederic Kouakou, the boy’s father, told Global News.
“If I lose hope, then everything will collapse around me. My family, my wife, my kids. So, I’m like a pillar. I have to handle this pressure.”
Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou is 4’6″ and weighs 90 lbs.
He has brown eyes and black hair and is French-speaking.
He was wearing a black jacket, grey pants and yellow shoes at the time of his disappearance.
Kouakou is known to regularly visit the Maison des jeunes au parc Mésy, Marselin-Wilson Park and the Galeries Normandie shopping mall.
“Every single minute, I wait for my phone to ring, but I don’t have that call that says, ‘OK, your kid is back,” the boys father said, adding that he’s been praying for his son’s return.
The family describes the 10-year-old as a good boy; he’s timid and wouldn’t follow someone if he didn’t know them.
Kouakou often spends his weekends at home in front of the TV or playing video games.
WATCH: Kouadio Frederic Kouakou, father of 10-year-old Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou who went missing Monday, says he has to be strong for his family while he waits for news.
Montreal police said Kouakou’s father had previously confiscated his video games as a recent punishment.
“He’s our champion,” the father said, insisting the boy is not the kind to run away out of anger.
“I miss him, his mother misses him, our daughter, his brothers miss him so much. We want him back home.”
He said he plans to tell his youngest child — his four-year-old daughter — what happened soon.
“Yesterday, she burst into tears when she saw the first picture of her brother on the Internet,” Kouakou told Global News.
The Montreal police are asking for anybody with information about the boy’s disappearance to call 911 or 514-393-1133.
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