A man believed to have killed one person and abducted a pregnant woman and her four children is now in custody following a search for him Friday morning.

The Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office said 35-year-old Chad Aanerud was taken into custody at 7:15 a.m. Friday following a traffic stop in Morrison County.

Inside his vehicle was a woman and her four children, who had been reportedly abducted hours earlier. An Amber Alert was issued statewide, but that was canceled once all five were found unharmed.

According to the sheriff’s office, the kidnapping is connected to a fatal shooting that occurred in Oak Lawn Township, east of Brainerd.

Sheriff’s deputies say they responded to a shooting in the township on Loerch Road around 1:50 a.m. Friday, where they found 62-year-old Lyle Maske had been killed from a gunshot wound.

Aanerud was determined to be a suspect in Maske’s killing and is also suspected of setting fire to a house on the property, authorities said.

The sheriff’s office later learned that Aanerud had reportedly abducted his 33-year-old girlfriend and her four children ranging in age from 3 to 14 years old.

According to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), Aanerud had taken a rifle and fired a shot into the house the five had been staying at, forcing them to leave with him in his vehicle.

Law enforcement said a 66 year-old Morrison County man heard the Amber Alert and spotted the vehicle in his neighborhood about 5 miles outside of Little Falls this morning.

Officers with the Morrison County Sheriff’s Office and Minnesota State Patrol stopped the vehicle with suspect and kids near the intersection of 183rd Street and 175th Avenue.

Medics checked out the kids and mom, and the suspect was arrested without incident.

Morrison County Sheriff Shawn Larsen said they are still trying to figure out why the suspect was in that area, asking folks in the area to keep an eye out for anything suspicious.

 “I would like to express my gratitude for all the collective efforts of everyone involved,” Larsen said. “The prompt response definitely made a difference in this situation.”

The investigation is still active and authorities will release more information as they continue to investigate.

Someone taking a child needs to meet certain criteria for an Amber Alert to be issued. Here is more on the criteria and sequence of events for Amber Alerts in Minnesota. You can also read it online HERE.