YAKIMA, Wash. – A Yakima man is under arrest after police say he tried to kidnap the 1-year-old baby daughter of a woman he met through a dating app.
KIMA News reports that 24-year-old Thomas Lanier came to Sunnyside to hang out with the woman at her home on Friday.
The woman says at one point she took a shower and when she came out Lanier and her 1-year-old daughter were gone.
She says she ran from the apartment in just a bath towel yelling for help and found Lanier walking down the street, holding her baby. When she got to him, she says Lanier handed the child back to her, but threatened to kill her if she didn’t stop shouting for help.
A neighbor called police and Lanier left the scene, but later returned to the apartment to retrieve a cell phone and was then arrested.
In a police interview, Lanier claims he was holding the baby while the woman took a shower when he heard a voice saying he was going to get robbed. He said he then ran out of the apartment holding the baby and got lost. He’s now facing charges of second-degree kidnapping.
Police say Lanier is a registered sex offender out of Oregon.