Lang
9/6/19
Iowa City Police have arrested a man they say kidnapped a three-year-old on the city’s southeast side.
According to an ICPD news release, around 9:30 Thursday night officers responded to the 2000 block of Taylor Drive for a report of a three-year-old who had been picked up by a male stranger and carried a short distance away. An investigation determined that the child had been playing in the side or backyard out of the view of the mother. That’s when 24-year-old Rodney Bryant of Hollywood Court allegedly grabbed the child and tried to enter another residence. The child’s four-year-old sibling, who had also been playing in the yard, alerted the mother. The mother then confronted Bryant, and a physical struggle ensued. The mother was eventually able to free the child from Bryant’s grip.
Bryant fled and was later arrested at his residence just before 4:45pm Friday. He admitted to grabbing the child, but said he only did so after another male in the area asked for help.
Bryant is charged with 2nd Degree Kidnapping, a Class B Felony punishable by a maximum of 25 years in prison.