BRIEFLY.

LAPD recruiting for citizen group

GLENDALE -- The Police Department is recruiting 25 residents for its 10-week Citizen's Police Academy, designed to provide an understanding of how the department works.

Beginning June 22, participants will learn what happens when the police are called, how criminals are apprehended and prosecuted and self-protection methods.

For an application, see www.police.ci.glendale.ca.us, or call [phone].

-- Daily News

Arraignment due in baby-snatching

Two women suspected of snatching a 6-week-old baby from his mother's arms in South Los Angeles were expected to be arraigned Thursday in Texas, where the baby was found, apparently unharmed.

Annette Betts Bryant, 47, of Midlothian, Texas, and Sylvia Nunn, 43, also known as Sylvia Marie Wilson-Hardman, were arrested in Ellis County, Texas, just south of Dallas, Wednesday night, according Ellis County sheriff's Lt. Ruperto Hernandez.

Details of the women's arrests were not immediately released.

-- City News Service

Kidnap, freeway jump, then arrest

BURBANK -- A distraught man kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and let her go before jumping from an overpass onto the freeway and surviving, Burbank police said Thursday.

The incident began Wednesday about 11:15 a.m. as Tayde NuNez, 42, a mail carrier, was making deliveries in the 3500 block of West Clark Avenue in Burbank.

Her former boyfriend, identified as Ian Petersen, 29, of Mission Hills allegedly forced her into his Jeep Cherokee before driving away and crashing into another vehicle, police said.

After the crash, Petersen pushed NuNez out of the Jeep and then sped away, police said.

Later, Petersen jumped from an overpass on Sunland Boulevard onto the Golden State Freeway in Sun Valley, and survived before being taken into custody, police said.

NuNez was treated at a local hospital for facial cuts and bruises and released. Petersen remains hospitalized with two broken ankles and a broken back, police said.

-- Daily News

Deputies search jail for weapon

A sheriff's Special Weapons and Tactics team and other specialized units searched the Men's Central Jail on Thursday, which was locked down about noon, on information that a firearm was hidden there, authorities said.

Six hours later, Deputy Rich Pena said the search was continuing.

``We have to look for each hiding place, each little hidey hole, that a firearm or zip gun or any sort of weapon may be put into,'' Pena told KCBS (Channel 2). ``We have to do a complete and thorough search and make sure there's no such weapon.

``We had information that there was a weapon hidden in one of the cells. We had to act on that information.''

-- City News Service

Woman who got into duct freed

BEVERLY HILLS -- A 30-year-old woman who crawled into an air conditioning duct Thursday in a mansion under construction near Mulholland Drive and Coldwater Canyon got out with the aid of firefighters, a fire official said.

The woman was reported stuck at the construction site on Beverly Park Lane at 2:50 p.m., said Ron Myers of the city Fire Department.

It took about an hour for firefighters to persuade her to crawl back out of the narrow conduit, he said.

Myers said that after some coaxing, the woman was able to back out of the conduit under her own power.

``For some reason, the woman was agitated, and ran down the street into the construction site of the 20,000-square-foot, single-family residence,'' Myers said.

-- City News Service