Minneapolis Man Charged In Backyard Kidnapping Of 4-Year-Old
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A Minneapolis man has been charged in the kidnapping of a 4-year-old boy from his backyard on Tuesday.
In addition to a kidnapping charge, Xavier Kent Fritz-Smead, 24, is accused of spitting at one police officer and chipping the tooth of another in a fight with police after he crashed his car.
When officers were trying to rescue the boy, Fritz-Smead held him in a tight enough headlock that his face turned a dark shade of red, according to the criminal complaint.
Fritz-Smead, a longtime friend of the boy's family, came to their house shortly before 5 p.m. in order to "patch things up" with the boy's mother. (He had acted strangely and violently toward her two days earlier in his apartment, preventing her from leaving, the complaint says.)
At the boy's home, in the Armatage neighborhood of south Minneapolis, Fritz-Smead picked the boy up and yelled his mother's name before becoming irate, shouting an obscenity, tossing the boy into his Toyota Camry and speeding away, the complaint says.
The boy's parents saw their son crying through the car window as the car drove away.
A few minutes later, Minnetonka police saw Fritz-Smead's car on the shoulder of Northbound Interstate 494, near Minnetonka Avenue.
A chase ensued, with police following Fritz-Smead north to Plymouth. On the ramp from Highway 55 onto 494, Fritz-Smead, drove into the right ditch and came to stop in a muddy ravine.
After a skirmish, the boy was rescued from Fritz-Smead's grip, according to the complaint.
The boy had minor scrapes and bruises and a small welt above his eye that he told police was sustained when Fritz-Smead hit him with something.
Fritz-Smead then punched and kicked multiple officers, striking one cop in the face and spitting at others, police say. He did not stop fighting until paramedics administered a sedative.
Fritz-Smead was arrested and taken to Hennepin County Medical Center for an evaluation.
If convicted, he faces up to 40 years behind bars and a $50,000 fine.
