Around Us 12-23-08

AMARILLO - A 10-month-old girl was reunited with her mother Sunday after police say her father kidnapped her over the weekend.

Police initially believed Neal Howard Fry, 19, had been shot in his legs before they caught up with him Sunday, a day after his ex-girlfriend accused him of breaking into her apartment and taking their child. He now faces several felonies, including aggravated assault, endangering a child and burglary.

Claudia Silva, 20, called officers Saturday night, saying her ex-boyfriend broke through a glass sliding door at the apartment she shares with her mother and stepfather and forcibly took her child. She identified the man as Fry, the child's biological father, said Amarillo police Sgt. Brent Barbee.

The man left the apartment with the baby in a Ford pickup. Police were sent minutes later to a home in the 500 block of South Dallas Street.

Officers arrived and took custody of the child. The man was taken to Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo.

The baby appeared unhurt, but Silva took her to the hospital for evaluation. Fry was released from the hospital and later booked into the Potter County jail.

While at the hospital, Fry tried to hide himself in the ceiling above his room after officers left the room to do paperwork, Barbee said. He was subsequently charged with attempted escape from custody.

Authorities later learned Fry's leg injuries resulted from a glass shard, not gunshot wounds.

Fry, a former worker at the Greyhound bus station in Amarillo, had been under indictment in the July 28 stabbing of one of his family members.

He was charged with aggravated assault on a family member, a second-degree felony. Fry posted a $15,000 bond for his release on Sept. 10 and was indicted by a Potter County grand jury the next day. - Amarillo Globe-News