Two children were found safe after a police search that began in Franklin and ended in Greenfield.
The incident ended with a man’s arrest on a charge of kidnapping and five other charges.
Franklin police were called about a domestic dispute in a vehicle on Graham Road, just north of Commerce Drive, after 7 p.m. Monday.
A woman told police she and her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend Jacob Richardson, 20, Franklin, had gotten into an argument. She tried to call police and he threw her phone and broke it, then forced her out of the vehicle and took off, with her two children, ages 1 and nearly 5, in the car, according to the police report.
Police and the woman called Richardson, who refused to tell them where he was. He began calling other acquaintances and telling them different stories of where he was going, at one point saying he was going to take the children somewhere and kill himself, the report said.
Franklin police also put out a notice to other police departments to look for Richardson and the vehicle. Police were getting concerned and were discussing whether an Amber Alert should be activated, Franklin Police Chief Tim O’Sullivan said.
Dispatchers then were able to use GIS to find the location of Richardson’s phone, and it was showing a location in Greenfield, the report said.
Just after 9 p.m., Greenfield police officers found Richardson and the two children safe in a Walmart parking lot, the report said. Police officers took the children to get them new clothes, since both were wet, and toys to help calm them down, the report said.
Richardson was arrested on a charge of domestic battery, interference with reporting a crime, kidnapping, auto theft, criminal mischief and criminal confinement.
After he was arrested, Richardson told police he had not forced his girlfriend out of the vehicle, and that he had broken her phone because he was upset with the way she was talking to him, not because she was trying to call police, the report said.
He told police he never intended to hurt himself, and that the incident was petty and that he shouldn’t get into trouble, the report said. He also told police that he panicked because he didn’t want to go back to prison, the report said. Richardson was released from an Indiana prison earlier this year after serving 10 months on a charge of failure to return to detention.
Richardson, 911 Yandes St., was arrested and taken to the Johnson County jail, where he was held without bond.
