After fighting with the mother of his children in a Walmart parking lot Wednesday, a Little Rock man led police on a chase that ended in an hourlong standoff, a police spokesman said.
Police were summoned to 19301 Cantrell Road at 9:20 a.m. Wednesday, where Farris I. Deloney, 43, was arguing with the woman, Little Rock police spokesman Lt. Michael Ford said. The woman, whom police have not yet publicly identified, called 911, Ford said.
In interviews with officers after the incident, the woman said she met Deloney at the Walmart for a child custody exchange but that he pulled a handgun from his jacket and pointed it at her, an arrest report said.
While officers were driving to the disturbance, Deloney fired a shot at the woman, Ford said. The woman ran into a nearby business, and Deloney took a 1-year-old girl with him, leaving a 2-year-old alone in the woman's vehicle, the arrest report said. Deloney then got into a white SUV and took off with the 1-year-old, the report said.
No one was reported injured in the gunfire.
When an officer attempted to pull Deloney's vehicle over for a traffic stop, Deloney fled, leading police on a chase that ended near 8000 Crystal Hill Road, just across the street from New Life Church of Greater Little Rock, Ford said.
Officers with the North Little Rock Police Department, the Little Rock Police Department and the Arkansas State Police converged there, using a half-dozen patrol cars to surround Deloney's white SUV, reports said. Officers then began to negotiate with him, according to officials.
Soon after the standoff started, officers were able to get close enough to get the child out of the vehicle, Ford said. The child was checked out by a medic at the scene and appeared to be uninjured, he said.
North Little Rock's SWAT team arrived at the scene, but Ford said the team fell back as soon as the child was moved to safety.
Ford said Deloney never threatened to injure officers but was turning the gun toward himself.
Deloney raised his hands and surrendered at 11:20 a.m., according to reports. He was arrested on felony charges of kidnapping, aggravated assault on a family or household member, and two counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor.
He was being held without bail in the Pulaski County jail Wednesday evening.
Ford said officers don't know what sparked the two adults' argument.
Deloney has been paying child support for about two years to the same Pulaski County woman after she asked for a state-ordered paternity test in July 2016, court records show.
Whether a child mentioned in the court records is one of the children involved in Wednesday's incident was not clear, but both are 2-year-old girls, according to court records and the arrest report.
Deloney also paid child support to a different woman for eight years between 2008 and 2016, according to court records.
Metro on 12/20/2018