Updated

Authorities say two boys are safe after Middletown police arrested their father Wednesday following an Amber Alert.

Police say 32-year-old Julius Crossty III was arrested in a Middletown alley after he contacted an acquaintance in Cincinnati to help him arrange to be picked up by police. The boys were with him.

Crossty has been jailed on a charge of felonious assault in connection with the stabbing of the older boy's mother Tuesday night. She was in fair condition Wednesday in the Middletown Regional Hospital.

Hours after an Amber Alert was broadcast across southwest Ohio Wednesday morning, police found the Ford Taurus they thought Crossty was driving, on a Middletown used car lot. But there were no signs of Crossty or his sons, ages 9 and eight.